Greater Effort Needed to rid our Community of Riffraff who Vandalize

Everybody, it seems has an opinion on “tagging” or graffiti vandalism. The latest to express her views is Maori Party co-leader Turiana Turia. Her comments that, “Some members of our community see (tagging) as a crime, other members see tagging as an expression of identity” is extremely naïve.

Fortunately very few members of our community see tagging as “an identity of expression”. Most people see the mindless squiggles that appear on fences, walls, bridges, motorway overpasses, street signs, bus stops and even trees as a blot on our landscape and want leaders such as Ms Turia to do something more than making absurd statements.

Lately we are seeing reports of escalating violence as the result of confrontation between members of the community and taggers. The most tragic is the recent death of a tagger in Manurewa. Taggers have also reacted violently when confronted by outraged and frustrated property owners whose fence, garage and even their house has been the target of repeated attacks.

In one such incident a man confronted three youths who were tagging his property. As he spoke to the group one of them came at him from behind and smashed his head with a baseball bat. As he lay on the ground close to death the three stole his shoes and jacket. As a result of this beating he has been under constant medical supervision, can no longer drive, has had to give up teaching and is now restricted to doing menial work. There are other incidents of whole families being threatened with beatings and even death by taggers.

Manukau Mayor Len Brown and I will be presenting a paper to council calling for a greater effort to rid our community of these riffraff who vandalize with impunity. Recommendations being considered are; greater community involvement, better liaison with the police, corrections and the judiciary, a greater use of private investigators, better crime prevention through improved urban design, more use of technology, the continued promotion of the Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill and offering rewards for information which leads to the arrest and conviction of graffiti vandals.

While the friends of criminals in our society may see tagging as a harmless prank and an alternative expression of identity this is completely out of step with mainstream New Zealand which has had enough.