Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2006 > January > 23
Monday, January 23, 2006
Make taggers clean up graffiti
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was only a matter of time before they’d get caught.
They were outlaws, but not like Jesse James or Billy the Kid. They didn’t rob banks or kill anybody.
They just spray-painted graffiti on property all over Norcross. We came to know them by their nicknames, or tags — “Spooky” and “Kelor.”
And after almost a year of defacing property, the 16-year-olds have finally been nabbed by Gwinnett County police. Their apprehension is as much a credit to their brashness as to solid police work.
Authorities got a tip that the Norcross teens boasted of their tagging exploits on a Web page. They even posted photos. Then came the breakthrough.
“One of them used their real name on the site,” Detective E.S. Osterberg told me.
Police say Spooky and Kelor are responsible for at least six incidents of graffiti vandalism in the county. They’ve been charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass and criminal damage to property, a felony.
You’ve probably seen their handiwork. They have admitted to authorities that they defaced the Crescent Lake Apartments on Sunrise Village Lane, the Greens Corner Shopping Center on Jimmy Carter Boulevard and a Firestone Tire & Service Center on Rockbridge Road.
They told Osterberg and Jason Summers, the lead investigator, that they were expressing themselves. That the taggings are art.
Please. I don’t know much about art, but I know what it isn’t. What I see spray-painted around Norcross definitely doesn’t qualify. It’s not even remotely close to the murals you can see from the seat of a MARTA train as it whizzes through the city.
The boys told Osterberg they felt bad about what they’d done.
“They said they were sorry about putting stuff on people’s property,” he said. “Were they legit? I can’t really tell. I don’t know if they were genuine.”
In August, Spooky e-mailed me to say that he and Kelor — also known as the “Silent Kids” — were responsible for graffiti along Jimmy Carter Boulevard. They took pride in their work, which they attributed to boredom and lack of a place to hang out in southwestern Gwinnett. He told me how he’d tell his parents that he was spending the night with a friend or attending a concert.
Spooky’s a cocky kid. He had the audacity to admonish me and suggest I use my skills to write something that would bring about change in the community.
I’ll do that right now, Spooky. My idea, though, requires input from you and Kelor. You guys ought to be named the county’s graffiti cleanup crew. Instead of calling Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, residents and business owners would report eyesores directly to you. You’d have to remove the taggings on weekends — your free time.And without pay.
How’s that for invoking change?
