Graffiti Monsters

They come late at night, when everybody is asleep. They spray paint our buildings, our fences, our homes, our cars and trucks. They scrawl their “tags,” or street names on our business awnings, on city telephone poles and mailboxes.
It is a growing, disgusting plague on the borough. It is an omnipresent part of the landscape. Virtually every single neighborhood in the borough suffers from this blight.
Along our highways and byways, the vandals have scrawled their tags on the embankments thereby making our unattractive concrete and blacktop roads even uglier than they already are. The graffitists obscure exit signs, stop signs, billboards, overpasses and underpasses. This must end.
They spray low - they climb high. They simply spray everywhere!
We know that graffiti is often a harbinger of gang activity in our neighborhoods. It is not to be construed as “art.” It is vandalism. It is a crime.
They call themselves artists; Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown and law enforcement officials call them vandals and now prosecute them fully when they are caught at their hideous craft.
They are the graffiti monsters and they are ruining our borough. Something must be done to stem if not stop this tide of vandalism and property desecration.
Fully committed to the fight, every precinct has a graffiti program and a graffiti officer. They try at the grassroots level to stem the tide of wet paint by painting over the defacements as soon as they can.
City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. painted an alarming picture recently, when he brought attention to reports detailing an 81.5 percent rise in graffiti complaints and a 23 percent rise in vandalism arrests last year.
“Graffiti is a physical symbol that reflects the safety of a community. When we see more graffiti, it emboldens criminals to commit worse crimes,” said Vallone, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee.
Perhaps the police precincts could organize overnight undercover patrols of auxiliary police and citizens who would cruise the disfigured neighborhoods and catch these monsters of the night in the commission of the crime.
Report all graffiti crimes to the police by calling 3-1-1 or even
9-1-1 if you see someone in the act of graffiti. Be sure to give the police as accurate a description as possible. Turn them in - do not turn your backs.
If your commercial property has been tagged, call the police and report it and then call 3-1-1 or your local precinct for information about the mayor’s City Graffiti Removal Program. The program requires a signed waiver which allows the mayor’s office to initiate a clean up.
You can help make a difference and by working together, we can reclaim our city from these lowlifes. Organize a graffiti cleanup group through your local civic association or join the group that is already in place in your local precinct. Get involved - take the time to report the crime!