Due to budgetary considerations, the Pittsburgh Police Department's specialized, three detective, anti-graffiti squad will be shutting down.
There has been widespread disappointment and concern from city leaders and concerned citizens. Established in 2006, the squad had some high-profile arrests, including members of Pittsburgh's Most Wanted Graffiti Vandals, Ian de Beer and Daniel J. Montano. In 2008, Montano was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $232,582. In 010 de Beer was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $45,000. The graffiti squad made 10 arrests and collected $11,899 in restitution in 2011, according to the Police Department's annual reporting. More detail here.
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Summary by Clean City Innovations Graffiti Watch
MEDFORD, Massachusetts - Anti-Semitic symbols and other hateful symbols, including Swastikas and references white supremacist groups, were spray painted on more than two dozen locations including schools, playgrounds, buildings, street signs and the athletic fields at Tufts University. “It’s unconscionable,” said Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, “I think it’s too much of a coincidence that it would happen on a day when so many remembrance services were going on.” The graffiti attack occurred on the night before Holocaust Remembrance Day, the annual commemoration of the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews. “Today, we again say with one voice that these hateful messages will not be tolerated in our community,” McGlynn said. Rabbi Braham David of Temple Shalom in Medford said, “We have tolerance for everyone, but we do not have tolerance for anti-Semitism, for bigotry, for homophobia, and for hatred in general.” Anyone with information is asked to contact Medford police at 781-395-1212 or 781-391-6404. More from the Boston Globe. Summary by Clean City Graffiti Watch
The hiker’s creed, “Take only pictures, leave nothing but footprints” has been turned upside down in recent months as a rash of graffiti vandalism has broken out in Joshua Tree National Park. Millions of annual visitors have respected the natural beauty of the park. The graffiti of the vandals has forced park rangers to close over 300 arces of the National Park including the highly popular, Rattlesnake Canyon, with its large granite outcroppings and natural spring pools. "People are appalled and people are wondering how it could happen here, in a national park," said Pat Pilcher, a ranger at Joshua Tree. According to park officials, defacing National Park property carries a maximum sentence of 6 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Park officials are assessing strategies to remove the graffiti without doing more harm. Some of the graffiti may have damaged ancient Native American petroglyphs. "People are protective of their parks," said, Jeffrey Olson, a spokesman for the National Park Service, "It makes it all the more shocking that somebody would defile our heritage." More detail at LA Times. |
AuthorFrom Clean City Innovation Graffiti Watch Archives
August 2015
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