9 Truckee youths accused of tagging
A six-week investigation into several graffiti cases throughout Truckee ended with the arrest of nine juveniles.
Most of the graffiti was considered to be tagging, with monikers related to the suspects, police said.
Additional suspects are being evaluated, according to Truckee police officers.
Police warn people that i t is a crime to supply a juvenile with spray paint, and it is a crime for a juvenile to possess spray paint.
“We take these cases very seriously and do not view them as petty crimes. Truckee is one of those communities where defacing property in any way will get our full attention,” police Capt. Rob Leftwich said in a press release.
Anyone with additional information should call (530) 550.2320.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
A fitting punishment is to have these juvies out there with the nasty chemicles and the cold scrubibing the rocks or buildings that were defiled. Then get these juvies painting and repairing public places where there has been damage. Mayybe if they see how hard it is tthey might think twice. Oh ya, they need to pay for the damages as well as the time to have someone supervise theirr work. If they are under 18 they need to have their parents help.
Go figure, I completely agree. +1.
I HAVE AN IDEA ! After considering this problem, I’ve thought of what we can do to improve our battle against the tagging crime. The popular targets for tagging are dumpsters, and metal utility boxes. Our present situation is that citizens can’t buy the color paint that is used on these dumpsters. When a tagger hits a dumpster, or utility box, there needs to be that color paint easily available to cover up the damage. If we paint all these objects one uniform color, army green for example, then keep a supply of that paint handy for citizens to obtain, the tagging can be covered promptly. The present situation is that paint is not available to match the color of dumpsters and utility boxes. Citizens are covering graffiti with paint that does not match the previous color. I cannot even find the correct color paint in any hardware store. We need the community to adopt uniform colors, then keep that color paint available to citizens who then cover up the graffiti. I see the need for using only two colors.
There should be an effort to channel this into something productive. Here in South Lake Tahoe youths are painting utility boxes and trash dumpsters with “art”. I agree those “taggers” caught should be made to clean up their doings. These “taggers” give real graffiti artists a bad rap. If you’re going to do something do it right and within the laws.
And an entire new bureaucracy is created. The South Lake Tahoe Paint Continuity Board. Seven directors at $ 84,000 a year, three assistant directors at $ 75,000 a year, and one inspector (part time to save on benefits) at $ 12.85 an hour. And, of course, it will have to report to the State of California Paint Continuity Board, which will report to the Federal Paint Continuity Board, with oversight from the El Dorado County Paint Continuity Board. Maybe there is a grant for this out there somewhere. The City should hire a grant writer for this to “explore new partnering opportunities…”.