WORLD> America
Los Angeles launches anti-graffiti campaign
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-25 03:04

LOS ANGELES: The US metropolis of Los Angeles is about to launch an anti-graffiti campaign that would enable police to arrest taggers simply for hanging out together, it was reported on Monday.

Efforts have been underway to amass street-level intelligence and reviewing legal strategies in preparation for a series of injunctions targeting graffiti and tagging crews, the Los Angeles Times said, quoting city attorney Carmen Trutanich.

The measures would be lawsuits of sorts, treating graffiti as a criminal enterprise and arguing it has become such a nuisance that it requires an extraordinary police response, the paper said.

Los Angeles is the national leader in the use of civil injunctions to combat gangs -- the model for Trutanich's proposal. The city has 43 injunctions targeting 71 gangs.

The tagging injunctions would focus on neighborhoods where graffiti is a particularly acute problem, such as the Harbor Gateway area, the San Fernando Valley and, especially, South Los Angeles, according to the paper.

"I'm going to put together an end-of-days scenario for these guys," Trutanich told the paper. "If you want to tag, be prepared to go to jail. And I don't have to catch you tagging. I can just catch you (hanging) with your homeboys."

An American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California staff attorney said Trutanich's proposal is "unquestionably unconstitutional," and some law enforcement officials expressed ambivalence.

In South Los Angeles, Police Capt. Mark Olvera told the paper that for police, the injunctions could blur the line between hardened criminals who use graffiti to mark territory and youth who try to enhance their street credibility through graffiti.