With graffiti vandalism increasing in recent years, Hollister
Mayor Brian Conroy has considered himself an advocate of erasing
such activity in the county.
With graffiti vandalism increasing in recent years, Hollister Mayor Brian Conroy has considered himself an advocate of erasing such activity in the county.
Now, after vandals defaced city property outside his house last week – twice in two days – Conroy is just plain irritated.
“Part of me wants to sit out there and wait for them,” Conroy said Friday. “I’ve always likened it to a dog trying to urinate on a hydrant, like some animal trying to mark a territory.”
After the first incident on the wall behind his house, police took digital pictures for analysis. The next day, after the public works department painted over the initial marks, taggers returned and repeated the act.
According to county Marshal Robert Scattini and other law enforcement officials, graffiti vandalism has increased in and around Hollister during the past two to three years.
“Tagging crews create thousands of dollars of loss,” Sheriff Curtis Hill said.
That’s why Scattini – who was elected to the City Council in November – plans to propose an extensive graffiti eradication program. He said he will present the “Selected Enforcement Units” plan to the Council in less than three weeks. That presumably will be either Jan. 21 or Jan. 27.
The plan reportedly includes mandatory jail time and communitywide cooperation – including involvement from the police, sheriff’s department, district attorney’s office, probation department, schools, businesses and the public.
Scattini said strict enforcement is a proven solution for graffiti problems, but he added citizens must get involved, also.
“People are getting tired of it,” Scattini said. “Believe me. It’s going to take more than law enforcement to clean this up. We’re going to do it. And we’re going to do it right.”
Scattini has already spoken with several agencies and said he received enthusiastic responses. Among those he spoke with was SBC’s Chief Probation Officer Debbie Botts.
“We need to take it really seriously,” Botts said. “It’s becoming a norm in the community… a huge problem.”
In recent years Scattini has personally kept an eye on in his own neighborhood located near Calaveras Elementary School. He has served as a source of night-time security for the school, he said.
That effort alone – one man’s stricter enforcement – has decreased graffiti activity “down to nothing” in the area surrounding Calaveras, according to Scattini.
Conroy’s neighborhood, which runs along Meridian Street, has experienced a large increase in graffiti vandalism in recent years, Conroy said. Up to this point, he has followed an attitude of “just go out there and cover it up.”
Conroy said he will often see graffiti on the street-side of Meridian’s sound-proof wall. When it happens, he has routinely grabbed a bucket of paint and covered it himself.
“It’s a growing problem out here… It’s gotten a lot worse,” Conroy said.
The HPD had previously grouped graffiti crimes into a single “vandalism” category. In 2001, the police department received 656 calls on vandalism and in 2002, it received 640 calls.
However, beginning this year, the HPD will use a new computer system that categorizes vandalism calls, including a category for graffiti.
A mix of perpetrators
Most local law enforcement officials agree that one specific group cannot be targeted for enforcement. It is a slew of different juveniles – namely gangs and other groups such as skate boarders, Scattini said.
“It’s a combination of all,” he said.
The probation department has recently worked with the HPD on curbing local gang activity, specifically among juveniles, according to Botts.
“We’ve got some serious gang members here,” Botts said.
But Botts also said a variety of groups are responsible for the graffiti – not just gangs. For example, crime among skate boarders remains at a “low level.” But it’s increasing, she said.
“We’ve got to keep a close eye on them,” Botts said.
Conroy said he has often seen “Meth” and “VM” marked along Meridian Street – the same brandings two arrested 17-year-olds admitted to tagging throughout the city the night of Jan. 2, according to a police report.
Police suspect the two are responsible for “quite a bit” of recent graffiti vandalism in Hollister, Police Chief Bill Pierpoint said. And police said the youths have no gang relation.
“They just want to put their names out, so they’re vandalizing,” Pierpoint said in a previous report.
While the Gilroy Police Department reports more gang activity than Hollister, the Santa Clara County Planning Office reported that only 4 percent of graffiti crimes in SCC are committed by gang members. The study also stated gangs are responsible for less than 10 percent of graffiti vandalism in the United States.
The HPD does not collect data that correlates graffiti vandalism to gangs or other groups, according to Capt. Bob Brooks.
Mike Sanchez, principal at the San Andreas Continuation High School, said school officials watch closely for graffiti vandalism. And he thinks the community should do the same.
“I think it’s definitely something that we need to stay on top of. We need to decide how much we’re going to do about it,” Sanchez said. “We definitely have it (graffiti problems).”
