100 Cops Say Joshua Vasquez is a Tagger

Time for a chuckle. Richard Winton reported in this Los Angeles Times blog entry that an alleged graffiti vandal, in addition to allegedly making the mistake of tagging, picked one of the worst times and places to do it.

A 22-year-old graffiti tagger picked the wrong place Friday to leave his mark: a glass door at an aquatic center in Commerce that separated him from 100 Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies discussing having enough backup when chasing suspects, authorities said.

Joshua Vasquez looked shocked as a throng of deputies began running toward him, said Capt. Mike Parker, who was teaching the class. Vasquez turned and ran as at least 40 deputies crammed through the doorway to get him, Parker said. Vasquez tripped over his own feet and fell, Parker said, and deputies restrained him.

You can't make this stuff up.

"We were discussing the importance of having backup when engaged in foot pursuits," Parker said.

That's when the entire class was drawn to the doorway, where it looked like the suspect was waving at them, Parker said. "It turns out we could see him, but he couldn’t see us," he said.

I want to see video.

But the suspect didn't give up so easily, and he kicked out the rear window of a sheriff's cruiser before being further restrained, authorities said.

Yeah – keep adding to the charges against you.

You know, at 22, shouldn't he have put down the tagging tools and taken up with girls? I hope he turns his life around. If the story is true, he's kind of got a sad thing going.

"Winmancan" commented on the blog with a great idea:

I always thought that a proper punishment for taggers, would be an open house tagging party at their home. With a cop present, any one could enter and tag anything and everything in and around the residence...the structure itself, furniture, pictures, clothes etc.

Sounds good to me! Some of you in rural areas or nicer suburbs don't see just how much blight taggers cause in places like Commerce, California. It is constant and pervasive. So I got a good chuckle out of this story.

Another Darwin Award Candidate

Another vandal has been killed in traffic. This time, it was 17-year-old Blake Locko of Riverside, California. Riverside is east of Los Angeles. Apparently, Blake was vandalizing the center divider of the 60 Freeway. Larry Gordon reports on the LATimes.com blog.

Blake Locko of Riverside was standing in the westbound carpool lane just east of Hall Avenue about 2:30 a.m. when he was first hit by a car and thrown over a 5-foot-high concrete divider onto eastbound lanes, where he was then hit by several other vehicles, the CHP said. Locko died at the scene, and one of the drivers was treated at Riverside Community Hospital for neck injuries.

What, was he up early for work? Had he been up late studying? Where were his parents? Those drivers can sue his parents for psychological damages as well as medical bills and damage to their vehicles – as if losing their son wasn't enough pain.

If your minor child is out at 2:30 a.m. without supervision, chances are they are not doing something legal, productive, or moral.

Darwin Award Candidate Announced Today

I know we're not supposed to take glee in the death of another human being, but I can't bring myself to shed a tear for Darwin Award candidate Jaime Herrera, 25, of Los Angeles.

You see, today he was defacing public property with spray-paint graffiti - a traffic sign, no less, which is important for traffic safety – and then he ran across notoriously busy Interstate 5 near downtown Los Angeles. Yes, that freeway is busy even and 4:30am.

While he was running – trespassing after "tagging" public property - he was struck and killed by someone driving a Toyota Camry. A buddy who was with him survived, and I'm sure will have lots of good memories about what a brilliant use of their time they made with their morning today.

Here is the real tragedy in all of this:

The freeway was backed up for miles this morning as three lanes were closed for more than an hour.

Click through to read the LATimes.com blog entry by Corina Knoll, and whatever comments have been approved.

Graffiti is one of my biggest pet peeves. And crimes of ignorance or omission or even desperation or passion are one thing. I have no sympathy for someone who chooses to engage in such senseless criminal activity such as tagging and then gets injured or killed as a result.

Let’s Use Graffiti Vandals For Target Practice

Enough is enough. We as a society have tried and tried to control the graffiti problem. In the greater Los Angeles area, it is an ongoing and seemingly increasing problem. The illegal alien problem and the illegitimacy problem are no doubt helping to make it worse.

So many steps have been taken – locking up paint and markers, graffiti hotlines, painting over graffiti within and few business days. Still, it is there. Vandals defacing and destroying property just to mark their territories like dogs. Only, dogs are more admirable.

Graffiti lowers property values, creates a hostile environment, is ecologically harmful, destroys property, costs a lot of fight, clean up, and prosecute, and assists with gang activity.

The time has come to fight graffiti by allowing the police and the average citizen to shoot graffiti vandals if they witness them doing the deed. How quickly would it cut down on graffiti if a homeowner group could hire someone to drive around in a Humvee overnight, armed and ready to shoot any graffiti vandals? Or if the cops could slow down just enough to point a rifle out the cruiser window and shoot up some punk and radio for an ambulance as they keep driving down the street? Sure, some graffiti vandals would arm themselves to fight back, but I think most would quickly realize that putting their unreadable scribble on a brick wall isn’t worth the likelihood (not low probability… likelihood) of getting shot.

Sure, there would be the risk of people dumping their murder victims by a wall and planting a spray can in their hand as a way to cover up their crime, but I think the investigations into those attempted cover-ups would be worth it.