By Mary Jane P. Baker

Tagging and gang graffiti in Carrboro has recently increased dramatically. Every time I drive by the empty Triem building at the bottom of Greensboro Street, there is more spray, especially on the warehouse. At the end of Hillsborough Street, where it meets Old 86, there are large gang signs. These signs are painted at the entrances of towns to mark them as the territory of particular gangs. Once you start looking, you can see smaller tags around town on buildings, road signs and other surfaces. The Carrboro police officer I talked with said there was an increase in the last months. When I asked what was being done about it, he had a disturbing reply. First, he suggested, Orange County and Carrboro law enforcement is not taking gang presence as seriously as Alamance, Chatham and Durham counties. And that this tagging was on private property where the Carrboro police cannot intervene unless property owners complain.

It would be naïve for Carrboro citizens to believe this is harmless fun or art—just Google “latino gang graffiti in Orange County, NC” for a reality check. On December 23, an increased amount of gang graffiti in several areas of Chatham County was reported by NBC17. Chatham authorities believe the spray-painted symbols represent nationally known gangs from Los Angeles, Chicago and Texas. You can read the story at http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2007-12-23-0002.html. The story was important enough to make the National Youth Gang Center website at www.iir.com/nygc/summaries.cfm

I don’t believe the ugliness of gang tagging or the violence of gang activity is something we want to see here. And the people coming from Latin American countries don’t want to see this happening to their kids. There are many families here with young teenagers susceptible to recruitment by criminal gangs. Having their kids recruited to gangs is not why they moved here to work.

The spray painting is ugly and it’s dangerous, and it’s not what Carrboro is about. I believe we should have a zero tolerance policy about it — these scrawls should be painted over as soon as they show up.

What can we do to address this growing problem? I have a few suggestions. Read up on gang-related activity in our area. Contact the Carrboro Police and Orange County Sheriffs Department and complain. If property owners will not take care of the graffiti themselves, as down at the abandoned Triem site, the Town of Carrboro should impose some sort of fine. If we can fine for oversized legitimate business signs, as down at the old depot site where there was a huge coffee roasting sign, we should be able to fine property owners for allowing these big ugly tags to remain on their buildings. These signs could be painted over by folks having to do community service for one reason or another. Paint could be donated by Home Depot or Lowe’s or Fitch, or it could come from the paint recycling center at the Orange County Landfill.

This problem should be addressed now, before it gets worse. The graffiti only invites more graffiti.