Graffiti on buildings can really bring down the tone of a neighbourhood.
Kids, and others not so young, around the world have been doing this for many years and it is something local authorities everywhere have tried to stop. All sorts of methods have been used, from night patrols to,would you believe it, Barry Manilow songs being piped through speakers in the area. The logic is that most youngsters would hate his music and leave the area quite quickly. Whatever the solution is, it is worth finding something because councils can spend tens of thousands of ratepayers' money cleaning up graffiti each year.
However, it is not only council property that is targeted, but schools and private residences as well and it can be quite costly.
You hear many stories of people having to continuously paint a garden fence as taggers are drawn to covering it in graffiti over and over again. I've had a wall tagged and much like when you are burgled, you feel a sense of violation and anger.
It is so needless, like someone smashing a car window and then not stealing anything. When it comes to a business being targeted, it can soon become very expensive. Take for example a story in today's paper about a Hastings truck depot offering a money reward after a sustained attack from taggers on its trucks could cost it more than $100,000.
For the past three weeks, drivers whose trucks are kept at the Toll freight depot have arrived to find their vehicles covered with graffiti.
These vehicles are people's livelihood and some vandals have seen fit to deface their property. It is all very well to talk about educating people so graffiti does not happen. I reckon the way to educate taggers is for the police to catch as many of the current crop out there and make an example of them. If any aspiring taggers see them being dealt with, maybe it will stop them spraying paint on a wall.
