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Kids will be kids.
That has been the kind of cover-everything excuse apologists have given to explain whatever kind of mischief their young ones find themselves in from time to time.
But where do we as a society draw the line? When does just horsing around and playing pranks turn into vandalism and having police charges filed?
Graffiti tagging
It recently has been brought to my attention that certain acts of vandalism and graffiti tagging are happening around Washington.
I’m not saying that this is necessarily new, but it’s something that I was never aware of until I received an email tip asking me to look into it.
One of the two “tags” — graffiti marks with names, symbols in a specific font or design used by the same person as some kind of signature on different buildings, facades, etc., — appear on the backside of the old Clark gas station on U.S. Business 24 and the other is on the stand-alone wall at Oak Ridge Park.
There are two more markings, one on the
electrical box in front of CVS Pharmacy and another on the back of a shed at the baseball fields at Washington Park.
The marks at Oak Ridge Park and the Clark station appear to be by the same person — they both read “Reos” in big wavy letters, followed by a smaller “Reos” and “2011.”
While I did photograph the marks, I didn’t want to print them as that could be seen as encouraging the criminal behavior.
While writing an article about it in the first place could be sign as glorifying this kind of activity, I felt it was necessary to bring peoples’ attention to the problem.
Washington Park District Director Doug Damery said he was made aware of the marking at Oak Ridge Park in November. Damery said these graffiti tags are more of a “pain in the butt than anything.”
Typically, depending on the size and kind of material the graffiti was done on, he said the park district will just paint over it and move on.
“One of the things I’m trying to do this year is actually better record these acts of vandalism,” Damery said. “I’ve seen small tags being put on back of signs and power boxes around town for a couple of years now ... it’s something simple, yet just as destructive.”
Damery said the park district often files a report with the police department, but Deputy Chief Don Volk is at just as much of a loss of what to do as Damery.
Kids will be kids.
That has been the kind of cover-everything excuse apologists have given to explain whatever kind of mischief their young ones find themselves in from time to time.
But where do we as a society draw the line? When does just horsing around and playing pranks turn into vandalism and having police charges filed?
Graffiti tagging
It recently has been brought to my attention that certain acts of vandalism and graffiti tagging are happening around Washington.
I’m not saying that this is necessarily new, but it’s something that I was never aware of until I received an email tip asking me to look into it.
One of the two “tags” — graffiti marks with names, symbols in a specific font or design used by the same person as some kind of signature on different buildings, facades, etc., — appear on the backside of the old Clark gas station on U.S. Business 24 and the other is on the stand-alone wall at Oak Ridge Park.
There are two more markings, one on the
electrical box in front of CVS Pharmacy and another on the back of a shed at the baseball fields at Washington Park.
The marks at Oak Ridge Park and the Clark station appear to be by the same person — they both read “Reos” in big wavy letters, followed by a smaller “Reos” and “2011.”
While I did photograph the marks, I didn’t want to print them as that could be seen as encouraging the criminal behavior.
While writing an article about it in the first place could be sign as glorifying this kind of activity, I felt it was necessary to bring peoples’ attention to the problem.
Washington Park District Director Doug Damery said he was made aware of the marking at Oak Ridge Park in November. Damery said these graffiti tags are more of a “pain in the butt than anything.”
Typically, depending on the size and kind of material the graffiti was done on, he said the park district will just paint over it and move on.
“One of the things I’m trying to do this year is actually better record these acts of vandalism,” Damery said. “I’ve seen small tags being put on back of signs and power boxes around town for a couple of years now ... it’s something simple, yet just as destructive.”
Damery said the park district often files a report with the police department, but Deputy Chief Don Volk is at just as much of a loss of what to do as Damery.
“We just need an idea of where to start; that’s the big thing,” Volk said. “We can have our (School Resource Officers) put the word out there to the kids to have them let us know if they hear or see anything.
“Normally we try to contact the business owner and they’ll clean it or paint over it,” he said.
Volk said he has no reason to believe any of the graffiti tags around the city are gang- or drug-related.
If anyone ever has any information about the defacing of public property in any manner, Volk said they should call the police department; tips can be reported anonymously.
“Call us first and then we’ll send an officer out and we’ll see if we can figure out who owns the building to do something to take care of the damage.”
Vandalism beyond graffiti
While Deputy Chief Volk stopped short of saying graffiti or vandalism in general has increased over the past few years, Damery said the park district has experienced an increase.
“Vandalism has picked up for sure,” Damery said. “Some of the stuff we can’t even keep up with ... especially the picnic tables at the shelters — we’ll take off the really explicit words (written or carved) into the tables, but other than that we can’t keep doing it anymore.”
The graffiti and tagging, which Damery said is more “annoying than anything,” is one thing, but other forms of vandalism have started to cost the park district some big bucks.
“I can’t tell you how many times that people are throwing shingles off the roof of shelters,” he said. “They actually caught people doing that out at Meadow Valley Park.
“Out at Wenger Shelter people are burning the wooden tables. Kids will start a fire there and run out of wood and just start busting up tables.”
Shingles are being torn off dugouts at Washington Park and at Sweitzer Park as well.
In addition, some people are taking their vehicles out for joyrides in the parking lots and athletic fields of the park district.
“Stupid stuff like that is frustrating,” Damery said. “People don’t realize how much damage that does ... especially if they are out on the fields. ... It takes some serious money to fix those ruts.”
Damery said in most instances of vandalism, he will notify the police department, but he knows not much can be done to stop it.
“... (I call them) just to at least make sure they are aware (of the damage caused.) If they see a pattern, they’ll have a better idea of what could be happening.”
At recent park district meetings, implementing the use of security cameras at different park district buildings has been a point of discussion.
“That’s one of the things we’re trying to answer: What’s going to slow it? I don’t know I have the answer to that, but we’ve talked about purchasing two or three cameras ... and try to cover more areas.
“It’s kind of hard because you have to catch them at the right time.”
More than ‘kids being kids’
I do want to play devil’s advocate here and say that other than the few cases where actual kids were caught in the act of tearing shingles or climbing on the roof of the Washington Park District building, it is unfair to assume the graffiti or other acts as only things “kids” would do.
That being said ...
I did plenty of immature and idiotic things as a kid when it came to pulling pranks or trying to have fun, but ripping off shingles of shelters, burning benches and spray-painting public property is more than just kids having fun and pulling pranks.
Depending on the kind of vandalism, this is costing the park district and possibly other businesses in town thousands of dollars in repairs and it needs to stop.
When I broke things around the house during my youth, my mom always said, “This is why we can never have nice things!”
The same saying applies to the situation Washington is currently in.
If we continue to disrespect our buildings, businesses and organizations with graffiti, vandalism and even littering, why would organizations want to expand their services to the public or why would businesses move to Washington if this behavior continues?
Now that everyone is privy to the details, I know Washingtonians will not let this kind of behavior continue to be a black eye on the community.
It’s easier said than done and we’ll probably never be able to put an end to all vandalism as a whole, but if residents keep their eyes peeled and start to report any kind of activity, it surely has to decrease.
So, here’s my plea to Washington’s youth if you are in fact part of the problem with these shenanigans: You want more responsibility and want your parents and society as a whole to treat you more like an adult? Then take some pride in Washington’s buildings and organizations, and stop defacing public property.
