Crime

Duggan's War on Graffiti Puts People Behind Bars

September 21, 2017, 8:12 AM

Mike Duggan has hated graffiti a long time, even before becoming mayor.

Violet Ikonomova writes in a Metro Times cover story:

In 2003, while serving as Wayne County prosecutor, he got two out-of-towners locked up for 60 days for spraying an abandoned building, using their court date to stage a press conference in which he likened graffiti writers to animals: "These guys go around, much like a dog marking his territory and urinating on fire hydrants," he said. That same year, Duggan threatened to imprison graffiti writer Turtle, who was known for scrawling the little green reptiles throughout Detroit.

Since becoming mayor in 2014, his administration has issued thousands of graffiti blight tickets, put about a dozen writers behind bars and spent millions of taxpayer dollars in the process, the publication reports in a magazine-length deep dive:

And the city has, ultimately, succeeded in its mission to bring things under control. The vibrant, colorful, often stories-high graffiti that once covered Detroit is just about gone, replaced by duller shades of exterior paint.

"Every city kind of has their little (graffiti) heyday, and Detroit's was 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014," explains a former Detroit graffiti writer who has opted to go by the alias WUZNME313, for fear of having his real tag flagged by police. . . .

The work of the people police have gone after . . . is colorful, stylized, and hard to replicate. And, most of the time, their only criminal act is writing on a wall without permission.

Ikonomova's comprehensive report, headlined "Inside Detroit's merciless graffiti crackdown," runs 3,700 words and has comments from the anti-graffti squad commander.

Sgt. Rebecca McKay, who calls the taggers "these artists" and acknowledges many are "true artists and they have true talent," tells the investigative reporter:

"So many of them are in their late-20s, mid-30s, and they're still doing this — climbing buildings and painting. . . . Why are they doing this? It seems like they could be so much more than just a tag on a vacant building." 


Read more:  Metro Times


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