TEEN TAG OF WAR - retailers stuck in the middle of rival gangs

Whangarei is being defaced in a graffiti turf war among rival teen gangs as those charged with clearing up the mess struggle to cope.
Whangarei District Council contractors were cleaning up about 300 lots of graffiti around the district each month early this year, but in each of the last few months about 750 cases of graffiti have been reported. Some shops and buildings are being singled out for multiple attacks and Bunnings Warehouse on State Highway One at Otaika seems to have become the focus of a turf war involving groups from the Raumanga area and "raiders" from other suburbs.
In recent weeks the "graffiti guerrillas" have stepped up the size and frequency of attacks, with vandals appearing to be competing for maximum visibility for tags identifying their groups.
Shops and businesses throughout the city have fallen victim to taggers so keen to "claim territory" that they scale buildings in the dark. A wall built beside the railway line at Kensington as part of a new development has been massively defaced.
Tagger groups are identified by lettering and dress code. SD stands for Smeaton's Drive (Raumanga); GB, Ghetto Bandits (Otaika, white clothes); RBS, Raumanga Bud Smokers (red); OTG, Otangarei Gangsters (blue); DHC, Dacholic Crew (Tikipunga, green); RU (Whangaruru, possibly red).
Bunnings manager Peter Younger said tag attacks on his store had escalated during the past two months and he had been told the store had become a focal point for rival groups competing to mark out territory. "We are told there is a youth gang thing going on between the kids from this area and kids coming in from outside and planting their marks. It's turned into a tug of war with us in the middle," he said.
"In the past we felt just a couple of creative kids were behind the graffiti, now it's more serious. It's a real concern to think we are in the middle of a turf war, and we are really disappointed at being under attack because we have worked very hard to support community initiatives in this area.".
The company had employed a security guard as a temporary measure, which had proved effective - "he saw groups of kids and youths going past on their bikes and they kept on going when they saw him" but was very expensive.
Other options, including installing infra-red cameras or a "sensored" automatic sprinkler system to deluge vandals, were also very expensive. Graffiti guard paint was also being considered, but was not an option for the area most often targeted - the store's long shade-cloth fence.
Bunning's in-store cameras had captured a group of young people taking spraycans from the shelves and throwing them over the fence around the nursery area, for collection later. Bunnings sold spray-cans "but not to kids ... we exercise our common sense".
Bunnings has spent more than $4000 on painting over graffiti this year, while Rodney Chang, owner of Pak 'N Save Whangarei paid $6500 to paint over a recent graffiti attack on three sides of that building. "This attack was on a huge scale. We have never been attacked like this before. It's an epidemic," he said. He had been shocked to see groups of school children taking photos of the tagging - "possibly their handiwork". He said he felt he had no option but to clean it up. "It's just a downward spiral if you don't deal to it."
WHAT TO DO:
• Report tags to police straight away.
• Paint over them as soon as possible.
• If graffiti continues, look at ways to prevent it like planting climbers on a bare wall.
• In the central city remove all access points to the roof such as ladders or wheelie bins.
GRAFFITI GANGS:
• SD - stands for Smeaton's Drive (Raumanga).
• GB - Ghetto Bandits (Otaika, white clothes).
• RBS - Raumanga Bud Smokers (red).
• OTG - Otangarei Gangsters (blue).
• DHC - Dacholic Crew (Tikipunga, green).
• RU - (Whangaruru, possibly red).