SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS BENICIA- Dedicated to the preservation and improvement of the quality of life in our hometown, Benicia, California, through better crime prevention and community involvement. Identify the problems, strategize, prioritize, execute, and evaluate. Eliminate roadblocks to progress. We are all part of the solution; residents, the Benicia Police Department, the Benicia City Council, all of us. If we prioritize it, we can solve it. This is your city, your home…protect it.
I am forwarding your e-mail to our City Manager for information on where we are on road improvements. With Measure C money we have been able to address our roads in Benicia.
Thank you,
Christina
Posted: March 17, 2009 10:47 AM
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Monday, March 16, 2009
Reported by: Emily Kiefer
Leaders in Grover Beach are working to keep the city cleaner.
Monday night, the city council unanimously approved a proposal for an updated graffiti ordinance. It's designed to replace the ordinance already in place.
Among some of the changes:
A second reading of the ordinance is scheduled for April 6. It will then go into effect 30 days later.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 15-year-old alleged graffiti vandal was arrested yesterday, less than 24 hours after a video of him defacing a Concord deli was posted on silive.com, the Advance's home on the Web.
Police said those images, captured by high-tech security cameras at My Deli & Grocery on Rhine Avenue, along with other information, helped them track down the suspect.
The video first appeared on silive.com around 2:45 p.m. Thursday and still photos ran in yesterday's Advance.Authorities did not release the suspect's name, or neighborhood, due to his age. He was charged with single counts of criminal mischief and making graffiti, said Detective Joseph Cavitolo, an NYPD spokesman.
The arrest came on the same day a graffiti scourge from Midland Beach was sentenced to 30 days in jail and ordered to pay $5,000 restitution. Joseph Battaglia, 19, was accused of plastering his tag, "Rank," or an abbreviated version, "Ra," in 75 different incidents since January 2007. Battaglia pleaded guilty in January to two misdemeanor counts.
"This shows how working together helps make our neighborhoods a better place to live," Hamim (Shah) Syed, who owns My Deli & Grocery, said yesterday. "We appreciate all the work the police and the Staten Island Advance did and we are glad they apprehended the young man who was responsible for the graffiti. While we feel sorry for his parents, we hope he learns a lesson from this experience and chooses a more positive path in the future."
Two weeks ago, Syed installed four video cameras as part of $9,000 spent on renovations, which included repainting the building.
The security cameras allegedly caught the youth in the act of spray-painting an indecipherable tag on the side of the building early Wednesday morning.
The video shows a hooded male with a backpack skulking around the store exterior about 12:45 a.m. After a few cars have passed, he pulls out a can of spray paint and defaces a wall behind an ice box. Then he walks away.
According to Syed, the vandal also sprayed graffiti on the side of the building facing a neighboring business, All Tire Repair Shop, but that crime was committed off-camera.
Using a graffiti-tracking system and a three-week enforcement blitz, Corona police have made a string of arrests they believe will help wipe out a nagging problem in the city.
Graffiti has been one of the most visible and complained-about crime issues in Corona in recent years.
But city police say several anti-graffiti initiatives are starting to bear fruit.
In about a month, Corona police have made 16 graffiti-related arrests, including eight of the city's top 10 taggers, police said.
Those 16 people are believed to be responsible for at least 1,028 acts of vandalism that caused an estimated $16,126 in damage.
Corona police Detective Bob Newman said that in the past, motorists on Main Street would see graffiti on every light pole.
A concerted enforcement effort involving police, public works and parks employees has changed that, he said.
"If you drive the 91 freeway within the last three weeks, you'd see that there isn't any paint on walls that (previously) have been hit really hard," Newman said.
The city's major anti-graffiti effort began 2008, in part as a response to a change in the nature of the problem.
Three to five years ago, Newman said, most graffiti in Corona was gang-related -- marking territory.
Since then it has shifted toward tagging -- self-expression or art.
Many taggers are young and hope to become famous, Newman said.
"They want to be artists," he said. "They want to get their name out there within the graffiti world, so that's what they turn to."
But to city officials and homeowners, tagging is vandalism.
The city offers rewards for tips that lead to graffiti arrests.
Park rangers started a program using volunteers to watch city parks, frequent targets of taggers.
Police say what may have made the biggest difference is a Web-based graffiti-tracking system that can compile and show all instances of graffiti associated with a particular tag and where they occurred.
That allows police to hold taggers accountable for many more incidents, Newman said.
"We're hitting them with not just one or five, we're hitting them with 183 (tags) that we've found with this graffiti tracker," he said.
Another weapon used during the recent enforcement blitz was Corona police Officer Gary Griffitts, who worked with gang detectives for several weeks because of his special interest in graffiti crimes.
It's too early for statistical results, but Griffitts said he thinks graffiti probably has decreased in Corona in the past month.
"I feel like it's making a difference," he said. "That's my job -- hopefully you can keep some of those kids from doing it again."
Bobby Spiegel, president of Congregation Beth Shalom and the Corona Chamber of Commerce, already has felt the impact of the enforcement push.
Someone tagged Congregation Beth Shalom's new building, which is nearly completed.
Police said the tagger responsible for that vandalism was one of those recently arrested.
"They were pretty ingenious about how they were able to capture the person," Spiegel said. "Graffiti over the last six months has been cleaned up tremendously."
Police are proud of their success, but they said graffiti requires constant vigilance.
They're also turning their attention to recovering the cost of the damage through restitution.
"What the kids need to know," said Corona police Sgt. Kurt Yinger, "is that we're not going to tolerate it and their parents are going to pay for it."
Reach Alicia Robinson at 
951-36...
or arobinson@PE.com
A joint effort between Auckland City Council and police has led to the arrest of eight of the city's ten most destructive graffiti vandals.
The council's community services committee chairman, Paul Goldsmith, said all eight were now before the courts.
Mr Goldsmith said the arrests were the result of a collaborative operation between Auckland City Council and the police to eradicate graffiti vandalism in the city.
They brought the number of arrests of graffiti vandals since July to 31.
"The council's focus is now to apprehend the next group of the city's worst graffiti vandals."
Mr Goldsmith said the 0800 STOP TAGS offender information hotline, which offers cash rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of graffiti vandals, was producing good results.
The council also introduced a new citywide eradication service in July, with contractors removing graffiti vandalism seven days a week, 365 days a year.
The new service had seen graffiti vandalism removed from over 16,000 sites.
"Getting rid of graffiti vandalism demands a zero-tolerance approach and part of this involves removing the graffiti as quickly and consistently as possible," he said.
NZPA
| Graffiti with racial slurs, Obama threats reported |
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| UNION-TRIBUNE (San Diego, CA) 7:06 a.m. October 31, 2008 SAN MARCOS: Residents in the city's upscale San Elijo Hills neighborhood found graffiti with racial slurs about blacks and malicious words and threats directed at presidential candidate Barack Obama yesterday morning. The graffiti was found in six to eight locations in San Elijo Hills and all of it was about Obama, African-Americans or Muslims, said Jenny Peterson, spokeswoman for the city of San Marcos. One message said, “Death to Obama.” Residents reported the graffiti about 7:15 a.m., Peterson said, and city crews immediately covered it. A vandalism report with a hate-crime enhancement was filed with the Sheriff's Department, she said. Sheriff's deputies are investigating. The city is offering a $1,000 award to anyone who provides information that can help determine who was responsible. Anonymous tips can be posted at sdcrimestoppers.com. San Elijo Hills, which is still being built, is in southwest San Marcos and borders Carlsbad. San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond issued a statement yesterday afternoon saying he is disturbed that such graffiti was found in his city. “This is a shameful display of hate and absolutely will not be tolerated in our community,” he said. –L.L. |
Racist graffiti scrawled in bathroom of Stratford city hall Wed, October 22, 2008 | |
Two men are charged after a washroom at Stratford city hall was defaced with racist images and slurs in what police describe as a "deplorable" hate crime.
"It's deplorable that someone in today's society would make such derogatory comments against any race or religion and the courts have been tough on these crimes and I expect they'll see a very, very stiff penalty," said Insp. Sam Theocharis.
Police said two men entered the washroom on the bottom floor Tuesday and covered the walls in racial slurs written in white chalk that demeaned several races and religious groups. There was also a "hang man" drawing with a racial slur against blacks and a happy face beside the stick image of a person being hanged.
Witnesses who entered the bathroom before and after the two men entered and left the washroom were interviewed, police said.
An angry Stratford Mayor Dan Matheson said he was sickened by the images.
"I'm alarmed by it," said Matheson. "I saw the information written on the wall and it's beyond reprehensible. It speaks to the lack of understanding these people possess as to what this community is all about - a diverse community, one that embraces different cultures, races and religions."
Matheson said he's heard of other racial slurs written at locations around the city, but it was always the work of misguided juveniles.
"This is the first time these kinds of words have been put in place with such an alarming boldness," said Matheson. "These people wanted to make a statement."
A video-surveillance camera led police to the suspects.
Both men — who are known to police and whose names weren't released since the charges have yet to be sworn — are charged with mischief and breach of probation.
-Joe Belanger is a Free Press reporter.London Free Press
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