Gang Tagging in Brentwood Park

There has been dialogue on the Brentwood listserve about the tagging or vandalism that is occuring in Brentwood Park and in our neighborhood. Since both neighborhoods use the park and since both neighborhoods should be aware of gang related activity, I am sending this out to both listserves.

Thanks for the info about tagging and thanks for neighbors getting out and removing the tags right away. I was at Brentwood Park today and walked around looking at the new vandalism. Here is some observations and info from Michael Higgins of COA PARD (who I was mtg. at the park to talk about It's My Park! Day).

The tagging is persistent and on the edges/borders of the park to mark territory. I didn't see it on the school side. This is gang related/territory marking rather than "just kids". It was removed from the park yesterday and then retagged last night.

Michael Higgins PARD gave some info about this:
He has seen the group mtg. at the park. He can't call unless there is something illegal going on. Neighbors can and should call 311 to report it.

They are high school aged kids. Maybe 1 or 2 of them are 19, 20, or 21. One of them has really long hair.

He has seen one walking around with bolt cutters in his back pack during the day.

They use the bolt cutters to move benches to areas where they can not be seen.

3 benches have had to be removed recently from Brentwood due to them being cut, chipped and hacked until they are unsafe to remain in the park.

He has seen good parks, like Brentwood, get bad quickly b/c of stuff like tagging and gangs.

The gang usually will sit at a table.

The highest activity is on weekends, then school days off, then any time after school.

He has seen the group smoking pot during daylight. This allowed him to call the police and some went to jail.

Michael assumes that the gang is buying, smoking and probably dealing at the park.

--Emily Wilson
Friends of Brentwood Park


Hey Crestview Neighbors!

I picked up on the tagging thread here. It's one of my most passionate subjects to talk about. I have worked on tagging issues around Austin for more than 15 years.

Here's the scoop:
1. You must get rid of it immediately and thanks to those of you who actually were able to take the time to clean it up yourselves. City of Austin's Graffiti Abatement dept does a good job, but it does take them anywhere from 4=15 days to clean up a report. And when they get it cleaned up - it looks really good. If you can't clean it up, at least obscure the tag. READ ON FOR WHY

2. You obviously have an active tagger that wants to show you that they own your neighborhood. You have to show them that they don't. By getting rid of it. Trust me on this one.....this is the key to wearing them down. They only have so much money for markers and paint. And you have so much more. They will eventually realize that their tag is not going to stay up.

3. I have caught two taggers in North Shoal Creek when they CAME BACK TO LOOK AT THE TAG. That is the thrill for them believe it or not. As stupid as that sounds . . .. that is what makes them do it over and over and over. They want to walk, drive or bike by it and they are proud when it's still up. One tagger I caught after I had gotten the property owner to quickly paint over the offending tags. A couple nights later, I saw a car parked near that property and when I drove in to investigate. . . the kid comes running over to his vehicle. I got a good description of the kid, his car, etc. By the time APD arrived on the scene, he had fled of course. This was
back in 2008. We used to have a dedicated graffiti detective with APD. He has been moved to a different area now but he was absolutely awesome. He set up a photo lineup for me to identify the kid. I was able to pick him out from a set of photos because the detective already knew which kids were doing which tags. I was able to provide him with more details about the kid. He never came back to our 'hood.

The second time - was a Sunday morning - different tagger that I have about 50 photos of his handiwork in my neighborhood. This kid, or one of his friends had just tagged our Allandale Estates sign on Steck the night before. When I saw it the next morning, I drove back home to get some paint to obscure the tag. I also turn it in to 311 but I make sure that I cover up the tag with more paint so to frustrate them from looking at it. When I came back, there was a teenager in a vehicle texting his friends, parked pointed at the tag. I pretty much knew what the situation was that I was looking at and I had a few words with the kid-scared the pants off of him. I told him if I ever saw XXXXX(name of tag) again in this neighborhood I would spray paint his face. Never saw that tag again in my neighborhood again and it's been more than a year. He knew I had taken a photo of him and his car and license plate.

4. Please take a good photo and if the tag is unintelligible, make sure you are taking a photo with good resolution, so the detectives can make out what it says. Post it here on your listserv, so people like me can know what you are seeing. Over here in North Shoal Creek and Allandale - we have a lot of "End War" and also one that starts with an 'S". It's either Shark or something like that. Send it on to the detectives.

Thanks for taking care of this. It does make a difference in how your neighborhood is perceived by other criminals who come through looking for an easy target.

One more story - a long time ago in another 'hood I lived in, there was a tagger who kept tagging everything in sight on the way to the bus stop. I caught the bus on a regular basis back then and I had my suspicions about one kid who lived down the street from me. Sure enough, one day he got on the bus holding his notebook. On the back of the notebook was the tag I had taken photos of all over the place. So I already knew who he was and where he lived. I turned the info over to our original graffiti officer from a long time ago. He already knew who the kid was because of some other troubles he had been in. His mother let the officer search the kid's room.
There was all the evidence in plain view. End of story and end of tagging.

Mary Arnett
Friends of North Shoal Creek