Catching Taggers

About a month ago, driving home from Downtown, I noticed seven teen-agers clustered near an apartment building where one boy was tagging, painting with a spray can, the front of the building. The area had other graffiti and I was surprised to see this going on in broad daylight.

I quickly circled the block looking for a police car or a public phone. Finding a phone (and refusing to call 911 as this shouldn’t interfere with a crisis) I called a police station given by 411, was put on hold 20 minutes, then disconnected. I called again, finally spoke to an officer and was told I was calling the wrong district. Put on hold again at the new number for 10 minutes, I hung up, circled the block and tried again to find a police car. The boy was tagging another building.

Finally, I found a police car at a local 7-Eleven store. The officers inside the store listened to what I told them was going on just three blocks away. “Is it your property?” I was asked. “No.” “Well,” the officer explained, “if it’s not your property, then why are you bothering with this?” Also, “there’s no way to arrest them unless we get a complaint from the owner.” Did I know the owner? I asked if they would apprehend the youths if they saw the tagging themselves. “Probably.” I described in detail what the tagger wore, told them the exact street corner, described his group of friends, and added that his right hand may have some black paint from the spray can.

I did all the right things--didn’t confront the tagger on my own, contacted a cop. I drove again to the area where the youths were, five minutes later, still there, and no police car was in sight. I hope the officers enjoyed their coffee and cake.

DANIEL TISHENBANKL

Los Angeles

How do we stop the taggers? Something must be done to stop the writing on the walls. I’ve watched this happen several times in my own neighborhood, but by the time you go to report the tagging, the taggers are long gone.

Maybe the neighborhoods should get together and form a “tagger watch” group along with the Neighborhood Watch.

It’s hard trying to catch someone that can use a can of spray paint to write a paragraph or draw a mural on a wall in 20 seconds or less. My brother-in-law was shot in the back trying to protect his neighbor’s wall from taggers.

How much longer must we live like this? How much longer must this go on?

CHERISE McDONALD

Los Angeles