Graffiti Busters Doing the Right Thing : Residents enraged by vandals can fight back effectively, without resorting to vigilantism

The reaction to the case of William Masters II, who fatally shot a tagger in Sun Valley last month, brings up the powerful emotions aroused by graffiti and the question of what people can do to stop it.

Surely much of Masters’ public support results from the infuriating nature of the crime that he happened upon. It’s even been suggested that public rage over graffiti threatens to encourage vigilantism.

You will not read here that the graffiti problem is on the run. It’s obviously not--just look around. But the picture of a helpless populace wringing its hands while vandals paint the town is simply wrong. People can fight back in responsible ways, without becoming vigilantes, and they are.

Police Capt. Ronald Bergmann recalls a West Valley case in which every day for 30 days the authorities painted out graffiti that kept reappearing on a wall near a school. “That’s 30 days, “ he says. Finally the wall stayed clean. “We outlasted them,” Bergmann says.

The northeast San Fernando Valley’s Foothill Division, which Bergmann commands, plans special projects in 1995 to battle graffiti in two parks. Both problem areas were identified by the Foothill area’s Police Advisory Board, one of several police-community institutions in the Valley. The anti-tagging strategy will include rapid cleanup, intensified neighborhood law enforcement and watching from hiding to catch vandals in the act.

Meanwhile, there are right and wrong ways to get involved. Masters, walking alone and armed in his neighborhood, told investigators he saw the taggers, began to write down their license number and defended himself when they tried to rob him with a screwdriver.

Some people seem to think Masters’ action set an example for citizen crime-busting. It did not. To begin with, such an activity is best done in cooperation with the police, whose community policing efforts continue to grow. The latest example: the opening last month of the new Valley Community Police Academy, which brings in community members for nine weeks to learn about police work from the inside.

Police officers never recommend that citizen crime-stoppers carry concealed guns, which is illegal anyway except with a rarely granted permit (Masters now faces weapons charges). It’s best to work in groups and in residential neighborhoods, not desolate areas. Carrying a cellular phone or other means of communicating quickly with authorities is good--Bergmann says it’s OK to call 911 to report vandalism in progress.

Write down a license number, but not conspicuously. “Sometimes,” Bergmann says, “it’s better to memorize it and write it down later.”