As some of you know I work for MetroSafe as a dispatcher. After hearing of the complaints on this board I took initiative and relayed information to the Major of the 5th Division LMPD. He in turn sent Det. Whatley to my home on 9/7. He is the gang and graffiti officer for the division. He and I walked to the train overpass at 264 behind Green Meadow and Ambridge and saw the extensive ''tagging'' that has been taking place. It literally looks like a toxic waste dump under the interstate from all the paint cans. He was able to identify some of the ''artists'' by their signatures and said he would be approaching them. As I also previously mentioned, 2 Metro officers recently arrested 4 juveniles in connection with some vandalism they were in the process of painting as officers approached. The sad part is within the 10 days it took for the detective to come see me, the arrested subjects work had been painted over. This vandalism isn't happening overnight folks, it's happening between 2pm and 10pm, when most of us are home.
I also saw where a neighbor on Stivers reported painting on the Kroger wall, we also located it, and the detective was familiar with the tagging there as well.
The good news is, he does not believe much of the painting is gang related, though there was some gang taggging by the tracks from a west end group. He advised they most likely hopped a train out to the location because it has a reputation city wide as a practice site for taggers. He says residents should be watching for young white males ages 15-25 carrying backpacks walking through the neighborhood that maybe don't live in the block. He also said most of them on the tracks are tagging, so if you see someone back there, report it to the police. It is illegal to walk the tracks like that even if they are not painting.
Better to be proactive than reactive after the damage. Call the police if you see this stuff happening. There was artwork from 40-50 taggers on the wall. That's right, it's not 5-10, 40-50 is the #.
If anyone would like to meet with Det. Whatley about damage to their home, give him a call at the 5th division, or call me and I'll contact him for you. He also offered to do a community meeting if anyone was interested so that people could familiarize themselves with the signs of graffiti.
I also saw where a neighbor on Stivers reported painting on the Kroger wall, we also located it, and the detective was familiar with the tagging there as well.
The good news is, he does not believe much of the painting is gang related, though there was some gang taggging by the tracks from a west end group. He advised they most likely hopped a train out to the location because it has a reputation city wide as a practice site for taggers. He says residents should be watching for young white males ages 15-25 carrying backpacks walking through the neighborhood that maybe don't live in the block. He also said most of them on the tracks are tagging, so if you see someone back there, report it to the police. It is illegal to walk the tracks like that even if they are not painting.
Better to be proactive than reactive after the damage. Call the police if you see this stuff happening. There was artwork from 40-50 taggers on the wall. That's right, it's not 5-10, 40-50 is the #.
If anyone would like to meet with Det. Whatley about damage to their home, give him a call at the 5th division, or call me and I'll contact him for you. He also offered to do a community meeting if anyone was interested so that people could familiarize themselves with the signs of graffiti.
