ANAHEIM : City Wants Tougher Laws on Graffiti

Citing an explosion of graffiti throughout the city in recent months, the City Council wants to toughen laws in hopes of curtailing vandals.

Councilman Irv Pickler, with unanimous support from other council members, asked the administration this week to draw up ordinances that would make parents responsible for cleaning up graffiti put up by their children, make it illegal to possess spray paint in city parks and strengthen the curfew regulations for juveniles.

Carolyn Griebe, the city’s graffiti consultant, said that calls to the city’s graffiti hot line--(714) 776-1306--are up 30% in the past month, reaching 130 calls a week. And, she said, only about 25% of all graffiti in the city gets reported. The city spends $250,000 annually to remove graffiti.

Pickler wants parents to pay for cleaning up their child’s vandalism or be forced to stand by as the child paints over the graffiti.

“The problem is, most of these parents don’t care,” Pickler said. “If the parents have to be standing there while the child is painting, I think we’re going to get to them.”

Police Officer Joe Bryant agreed, telling the council that the increase in graffiti is not caused entirely by gang members but also by children from solid families who consider themselves “taggers”--people who put up graffiti for no particular reason.

“It isn’t just the gangbangers, it’s your kids, my kids, our kids,” Bryant said. “It’s become a fad.”

And a potentially violent fad, he said, as some taggers have begun carrying guns to protect themselves. “We have found guns in their bags,” Bryant said.

Mayor Tom Daly, expressing the council’s frustration over the problem, said, “Maybe it’s time to bring back the public stockades.”

Councilman Fred Hunter said that his law office, which is across the street from City Hall, has been tagged by graffiti vandals twice in recent months and that other downtown businesses are being hit, including the Celebrity Theater.

“The poor guy who runs the Celebrity Theater must be spending a fortune replacing windows that are being etched and to keep graffiti off of the walls,” Hunter said.

Griebe said the city already has several anti-graffiti programs in place, including a $500 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of a graffiti vandal.