Getting Involved : ‘I Confront People With Respect’ : JOE CONNOLLY, Resident, Fairfax District, Los Angeles

Respect. It’s all about respect. I’ve made progress fighting graffiti and crime in our neighborhood without any weapon. Of 56 homes on our block where I’m the Neighborhood Watch captain, mine is one of only a handful that doesn’t have guns, although I’ve had guns pulled on me many times. Instead, I confront people with respect. And it works.

Taggers and gangs put up their signs in graffiti to mark territory. Once a neighborhood is marked, other criminals feel safe to move in--drug dealers, prostitutes, extortionists, businesses that buy and sell stolen property. When other gangs challenge ownership of that territory, you have drive-by shootings and gang wars. When graffiti is all over a neighborhood, it looks as if no one cares and anything goes.

Here’s my system: I went out at night to study how the graffiti was put on. I photographed the graffiti and put the photos in a big book. I showed the pictures to neighbors and asked who had painted them. They began to let me know.

It helped that I know many of the taggers from raising money for neighborhood schools. I went to their homes and showed them the pictures, saying I knew they’d done it. They always denied it, and sometimes pulled guns. But I didn’t hassle them as an authority figure, like a cop or probation officer; instead, I approached them as a neighbor and asked them to respect their community. If they resisted or threatened me, I told them I would report them to the police if they didn’t stop. I always confront with respect and ask for their respect in return.

If you want to stop graffiti, you need to paint it out immediately, before morning. Most graffiti goes up on weekends. If you paint it out before other taggers see it Monday morning, it takes the fun out of it for them. Criminals talk to one another. Criminals want things easy. If you make things hard, they lose interest.

Also, I made a truce with a gang leader in our area. I asked him to please reconsider spraying out of respect for our neighborhood. And mostly his gang stopped.

Why? Respect. It’s always respect.