ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 3, 1995 TAG: 9512050010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SENDING A message is what it's all about.
The graffiti artists around 11th Street in Roanoke spray-paint their message: The 11 Street Hustlers hang here. You want drugs? You want sex? You can buy them here.
The residents and business owners have a message of their own: Not anymore.
And they are delivering it with the help of police.
As has happened time and again since the Roanoke department started its Community-Oriented Policing Effort in high-crime areas, when residents and cops realize they have a common goal and know each other well enough to work together, they can fight the vice that infects and destroys neighborhoods.
COPE has extended its reach from five city housing projects to the area around 11th Street and Melrose Avenue because patrol officers were answering a lot of calls there. The neighborhood, meanwhile, was letting it be known that it had had enough. In a petition sent to the mayor in October, 65 business owners and residents declared their commitment to clean up the streets.
That kind of can-do attitude can, with the proper support, apply the brakes to a neighborhood heading downhill. So when neighborhood boosters painted over graffiti back in July only to have vandals deface their work, someone saw and reported the incident, and police made four arrests. Good.
Is obliterating graffiti worth the effort? You bet. Communities throughout the country are starting to recognize that graffiti displays a lack of respect and often heralds more serious ills, such as gang activity and hate crimes. Its presence diminishes the quality of life for law-abiding citizens. It signals to all: You are not far removed from illegal activities and a decline of civilized norms.
Paint, brushes and volunteers will not wipe out crime, and graffiti painted over is easily sprayed on again. But with paint, brushes and volunteers, a neighborhood can take a stand and send a message. And that can lower crime.
LENGTH: Short : 42 linesby CNB