aerosol squad

Editorial cartoon: People's Post 17/3/9

MEDIA RELEASE

FROM: The Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry
DATE: March 12, 2009

THE Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomes the City Council’s decision to form a unit similar to the “Copper Heads” to stamp out graffiti.
“We are delighted that there is at last to be a concerted effort to stamp out this form of recreational vandalism that defaces the City, dangerously obscures traffic and safety signage, projects an image of lawlessness and costs property owners millions of rands a year in cleaning and repainting bills,” said Mr Jeremy Wiley, President of the Chamber.
He said that until now the battle against the graffiti vandals had been localised and the crime had not been taken seriously enough by the SAPS or Metropolice.
“What the city plans to do is co-ordinate the fight, photograph the graffiti and set up a data bank so that the work of individuals can be identified. This should make for more effective prosecution. Hopefully the new unit will be able to pinpoint the worst offenders and we hope this leads to some hefty community service sentences and deters further vandalisation or sabotage of public and private property. ”
Mr Wiley also called upon local businesses, particularly the retailers of paint in spray cans to assist in the identification of customers or purchasing trends that indicated unusual purchases of the paint products used by vandals.
He said there was a clear correlation between the proliferation of graffiti and school or university holidays. “This trend indicates the lack of parental supervision and high levels of boredom experienced by our youth outside classrooms.”
Defacing buildings with graffiti was not a petty crime as it sometimes cost property owners large sums to clean and repaint and, as there were thousands of incidents throughout the municipal area, the annual bill would run into millions of rands.
Mr Wiley appealed to the city to never ever refer to the graffiti vandals as artists. “Artists are creative people who enrich our lives. These vandals are utterly destructive and do nothing but despoil the urban environment.”