I know this topic has been here many times and that's part of the problem.
It is still around with no solution in sight. An article over the weekend
detailed how the chief investigator will be quitting because of threats from
the taggers. In that article was a sentence about a $50 fine (if memory
serves me right) that a judge levied on a tagger. How in the world is that
going to make someone change his/her behavior?
Up to now I had always assumed we had a people problem here - that the people
in charge weren't doing their job. Well now I am coming to the conclusion
that it is a system problem. Why in the world are we relying on an
investigator to do the work of finding taggers and calling in the police to
make the arrest? Is it a system problem in that the policy makers don't
think graffiti is a big enough problem to allocate police resource in
sufficient amount to get the job done?
And it appears that one big system problem is a judiciary that does not view
the so called "quality of life" crimes as of sufficient importance to hand
down meaningful sentences. On this list there is a lot of bashing elected
officials, but don't forget that we also elect judges and isn't it time that
more information about judges and their sentencing habits be made available
to the electorate? I realize that is dangerous ground and that a judge's
decision are based on a myriad of factors, but I would look for pattern and I
think others would too.
Jan Del Calzo
Lynnhurst
