Graffiti

GLENDALE — City staff members painted over graffiti fewer times in 2007, but needed to cover a greater square footage of “tagging,” officials said. And the wide-open spaces of city parks were an increasingly-popular target. “Locations are probably down from previous years,” said John Brownell, senior supervisor of the Glendale Neighborhood Services Department. “But the square footage is probably double or triple — so that means larger tags is what we’re dealing with.

Police are investigating graffiti tied to an East Los Angeles-based gang that appeared in east and west Glendale, prompting concerns from residents. Police noticed the graffiti about a month ago in the area surrounding Fremont Park in the 600 block of Hahn Avenue, said Lt. Susan Hayn, who oversees the department's Criminal Investigations Bureau. In her report to the Community Police Partnership Advisory Committee on Wednesday, Hayn said the graffiti caught the eyes of local residents.

An arrest has been made in the recent rash of tagging and graffiti in the La Crescenta area. Crescenta Valley Sheriff?s Station?s Detective Brian Tibbett said that a 16-year-old Montrose boy was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly vandalizing several areas, including the campus of Crescenta Valley High School, with spray-painted and marker graffiti. ?All the graffiti has been in Montrose and La Crescenta,? Tibbett said. The graffiti has been seen by law enforcement for a number of months.

Darleene Barrientos Another $170 will have to go toward repairing a wall blighted by a spray-painted message that Ampco Parking attendants found last week, the second incident of graffiti on the same wall in about a week. The wall, at 127 Burchett St., is next to Conrad's Restaurant. Ampco Parking manager Diana Sanchez said Ampco will have to pay to have the wall, marked by graffiti measuring 5-by-10 feet, repaired. "It got me upset, but, oh well.

Part 4 of 4 Graffiti and tagging are forms of vandalism that in most cases are perpetrated by juveniles. If the damage can be estimated over $400 it is a felony; however, the majority of cases are under that amount and therefore they are misdemeanors. Parents are responsible for restitution, and juveniles are put on probation and their monikers are recorded. But law enforcement officials interviewed for this series say that graffiti and tagging are a sign of things to come, that they are a symptom of a much bigger problem and should not be ignored.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved an ordinance imposing civil penalties against graffiti taggers and their parents, including the possible imposition of property liens to ensure repayment of court ordered restitution. The ordinance grew out of a six-month pilot program conducted in Pico Rivera, which was sparked by the murder of a grandmother when she tried to stop taggers near her home. The county joined with the city of Pico Rivera for a campaign which in six months resulted in the arrest of 168 taggers responsible for a total of $368,000 in damages.

Gary Moskowitz NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- More than 600 volunteers are expected to help paint over graffiti and pick up trash around Glendale Saturday. The 14th annual Great Graffiti Paint Out and Community Clean Up Day will be from 9 to 1 p.m. Saturday. The event will begin at 9 a.m. with a kickoff rally in Perkins Plaza, 141 N. Glendale Ave. Registration for Saturday's event is closed but walk-on registration is still available. Volunteers are encouraged to wear sturdy shoes and bring work gloves.

GLENDALE — Police are investigating a dramatic increase in graffiti near Franklin Elementary School, where they say rival gangs are having a tagging war. Graffiti battles between two rival gangs are becoming more frequent in the neighborhood, spurring a response from the Glendale Police gang unit, Officer John Balian said. "We are aware of the problem, and we are proactively targeting that area to prevent a rise in tagging," he said. Three gang member suspects were arrested on suspicion of tagging on Dec. 19 in the 1600 block of Lake Street when officers said they observed three teenage boys, all of Glendale, tagging private property, Balian said.

CENTRAL GLENDALE — City employee Javier Covarrubias sprayed a solvent liquid on “hate graffiti” and gang-related graffiti Tuesday spray-painted on an exterior wall at the First Evangelical Church on Broadway. Church leaders found profanity directed at Armenians spray-painted in red along a brick wall, next to black gang tagging Saturday morning. The hate graffiti was the eighth marking of its kind Covarrubias removed in the city in two days, he said. Covarrubias and another city employee cleaned markings off of 250,691 square feet at 2,650 sites for the 2007-08 fiscal year, said John Brownell, the city’s Neighborhood Services supervisor.

Glendale police got a helping hand Wednesday afternoon in the form of graffiti fighting kits. Businessman Peter Rosenthal -- who has undertaken the task of fighting area graffiti for the last 15 years -- presented five of his homemade kits to area officers so they can quickly remove the unwanted blemishes as soon as they are discovered. The homemade kits include paper towels, spray paint, a sponge and lacquer thinner. Rosenthal is a local businessman who operates several real estate companies in the Glendale area and understands how the defacement of property -- whether public or private -- can rapidly decrease its value.

A reputed gang member was charged with felony vandalism after he allegedly spray-painted graffiti on the Pioneer Drive and Patterson Avenue tunnel. Narbe Ohanessian, 23, of Glendale is scheduled to appear Nov. 9 in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Burbank for a preliminary hearing on the vandalism offense, according to court officials. Ohanessian, who claims ties to a Southeast Los Angeles gang, was arrested Friday after witnesses reported hearing sounds from a spray can in the tunnel, according to Glendale police reports.

Police are investigating graffiti tied to an East Los Angeles-based gang that appeared in east and west Glendale, prompting concerns from residents. Police noticed the graffiti about a month ago in the area surrounding Fremont Park in the 600 block of Hahn Avenue, said Lt. Susan Hayn, who oversees the department's Criminal Investigations Bureau. In her report to the Community Police Partnership Advisory Committee on Wednesday, Hayn said the graffiti caught the eyes of local residents.

GLENDALE — Three men were arrested Saturday after they allegedly were spotted preparing to paint graffiti on a Colorado Street business and fled from police, officials said. The men — Jesse Delgado, 19, of Los Angeles, Michael Rodriguez, 19, of Whittier and Bardo Albarra, 28, of Los Angeles — likely belong to a tagging crew in northeast Los Angeles, Glendale police Gang Det. Jeffrey Davis said. “It looks like they were just passing through the area,” he said. The men are scheduled to be arraigned in Los Angeles Superior Court today on vandalism charges.

Though I have personally thanked my congressman, Adam Schiff, for voting "yes" on House Roslution 4899, which requires a stated timetable for withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan, Allen E. Brandstater's letter ("So many reasons to vote for Colbert," Oct. 16) reminds me to thank him publicly. Brandstater sarcastically asks, "Hey, it's only fair to give al-Qaida a heads-up when we're leaving, right?" Here's the real joke: Al-Qaida is long gone from Afghanistan, and even the Republicans along with anyone who gets news almost anywhere other than Fox should know it. Another fact is that a key part of the U.S. military strategy to bring our Afghan fiasco to an end is to get the Karzai gang into negotiations with the Taliban.

SOUTH GLENDALE — Glendale police officials fielded questions on Wednesday night from a few dozen residents concerned about gang activity, vandalism and response tactics. Residents who attended the meeting at Horace Mann Elementary School asked a panel of law enforcement officials about identify theft, how to report crimes, graffiti and gang activity. Gang Det. Jeff Davis, who grew up in South Glendale, told residents that graffiti activity has spiked in recent months, adding that the trend usually is tied to the release of inmates.

SOUTH GLENDALE — Police this month wrapped up investigations into at least 10 vandalism incidents, including graffiti at the Adams Square Mini Park gas station, leading to the arrest of five Glendale boys. The vandalism occurred from the beginning of November to mid-February in southeast Glendale, south of Broadway and east of Glendale Avenue, Glendale police said. Damage related to the vandalism cost $2,500, said Det. Eric Meyer of the Glendale Police Gang Detail. The five Glendale boys, whose ages range from 11 to 14, were arrested in the past two weeks on suspicion of vandalizing facilities in south Glendale, including the handball courts at John Muir Elementary School, he said.

MONTROSE — After 20 years of service, the Volunteers in Pride are hanging up their graffiti-removing paintbrushes due to a decrease in vandalism in the Crescenta Valley and Northeast Los Angeles. Police officials say the drop in vandalism incidents can largely be attributed to the group, which is made up of area residents who volunteered their time to paint over graffiti. “Graffiti has gone down since their inception,” Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

Trucks to work on removing city graffiti The city of Glendale last month introduced two new graffiti response vehicles. The trucks, a major component of the city?s graffiti-removal efforts, are equipped with a heated pressure washer, an airless paint sprayer, 120-volt electricity, 150 gallons of water, eco-friendly removal chemicals, cover-up paint and other tools. To report graffiti, contact Neighborhood Services at (818) 548-3700 or report it the department?s website.

SOUTH GLENDALE — The Adams Square Mini Park gas station has continued to be a target for vandals, with the most recent defacement the worst one yet, officials said. Vandals scribbled graffiti all over the circa 1930s gas station at Palmer and Adams streets sometime last week, but city crews quickly removed the markings. Most of the damage to the gas station was paint, which was removed in less than two hours, said George Chapjian, director of the Community Services & Parks Department.