Sep 4, 2008 1:12 pm US/Pacific
Proposal Has Taggers' Parents Pay For Clean-Up
LOS ANGELES
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Graffiti clean-up cost the city between $7 million and $8 million in 2007, Councilman Bernard Parks said. (File)
AP
The parents of taggers who vandalize property within the city limits would have to pay to clean up the graffiti under an ordinance proposed Thursday by two Los Angeles councilmen.
Councilman Bernard Parks and Eric Garcetti's motion mirrors an ordinance approved in August by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Graffiti clean-up cost the city between $7 million and $8 million last year, Parks said. Tagging is also a matter of public safety. The former Los Angeles police chief noted that the last arrest he made as a police officer was a man tagging on Vernon Avenue.
"Whether we call people taggers or gang members, they seem to do the same thing. They write on the walls; they may kill each other if you scratch it out," Parks said.
Supervisor Gloria Molina pushed for the county's ordinance in response to the murder of 58-year-old Maria Hicks, who was shot when she tried to stop someone from tagging a wall near her home.
"It is debilitating to a community," Molina said. "The reality is it depresses our economy, it makes neighborhoods look unsafe. It's a quality-of-life issue that we need to attack."
The city of Los Angeles already offers $1,000 rewards to individuals who provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of a tagger. Anyone who witnesses vandalism should make a report to police and not attempt to intervene, Parks said.
The motion will be introduced at Friday's Los Angeles City Council meeting.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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