Graffiti from SMPD's Perspective

San Marcos Police Chief Howard Williams said police try to prevent instances of graffiti and have it covered rapidly because graffiti decreases property values. Chief Williams supports the ordinance, “I believe this ordinance would give police one tool to prevent the application of graffiti before the damage is already done.”
The University Star editorials and the community are worried that the police could profile someone who has not committed a crime but Chief Howard said, “The police can tell the difference between a legitimate artist and someone intent of defacing property.”

The Graffiti Hurts website offers other tips to prevent graffiti such as educating the community about graffiti prevention, light dark places that get hit with graffiti, adopt a wall to paint if it gets covered, remove graffiti promptly, and use graffiti resistant surfaces.

The San Marcos police purchased a $32,000 baking soda, water, air, high pressure blaster in 2008 to remove graffiti. According to a San Marcos City Hall documents, the penalties for graffiti depends on the damage and the place that has been defaced:

“Penalties are assessed based on the loss suffered by the property owner. Depending on the damage and the target, the offense may range from Class A or B misdemeanors with fines up to $4,000 and jail time from six months to a year to felonies. Scrawling graffiti on schools, higher education institutions, places of worship, cemeteries, public monuments, or community centers providing medical, social or educational programs makes the crime a state jail felony. Depending on the degree of the felony, fines and punishment range up to $10,000 with imprisonment from two year to up to 99 years for a first degree felony.”

Graffiti Artist's Perspective

Eduardo Martinez, 18, used to graffiti his neighborhood but things became too risky after he got caught. The adrenalin rush of tagging is why he said he did it and why many others do graffiti, “People catch the most fame by doing crazy outrageous spots…like you're on a billboard up in the sky doing or on a tower somewhere downtown with mad cops below you. There's a sense of immortality and it's like you really are a super star amongst your peers. For those few days or so you're untouchable.”

Martinez was injured after he was caught and said that is why he stopped. Martinez says all graffiti artists will either get caught or get hurt. He says it is not uncommon for graffiti artists to go to jail or fall and jump off high places to escape getting caught. In a story from the San Antonio Express-News earlier this month one teenager was injured after jumping off a building and trying to run from the cops who had caught him and two other individuals tagging on West Ave which caused about $2,000 in damage. The bond for each teenager was $3,500.

Even though Martinez was caught and stopped writing illegally after he was hurt, he said graffiti helped him, “Honestly, if it wasn’t for graffiti I’d probably be out in a gang because that’s what I saw when I was younger... I chose to paint. I could be my own man when I paint and not have to answer to anyone or worry about who I could and couldn’t chill with; it took all the bad thoughts I had and turned it into art.”

Local Businesses

Against the ordinance
Texas Skate does not agree with the ordinance.
The owners of Texas Skate asked seven different artists to paint murals in their store. Murals and tags are all over the inside and one on the outside of the store. On the back door some tags had been covered up by the city, but Texas Skate co-owner Jeffery Quick said he didn’t mind the tags being up there. The inside of the store is covered with colorful murals. Shoes were on display against a mural of Texas Skate in graffiti styled done by a local artist. The artist left a post it of his information on his mural that said he was cheap for anyone is interested in his art. Along a hallway other elaborate pieces of a ninja, skulls, and the name of the artists. The back of the store is covered in tags with very few spots of white on the wall from the floor and all the way up to the ceiling.

Quick said the ordinance was ridiculous and said that a graffiti wall would not be enough to extinguish San Marcos graffiti. He said artists try to ‘wow’ an audience through their skill of the art or their coverage of their tags being seen everywhere. He hopes to promote the skill of an artist on the murals inside and outside of the store.



For the ordinance
Cedar’s Mediterranean Café waitress, Faith Thomas, thinks the ordinance would be a good idea since it is her work that is getting graffiti. Cedar’s has been defaced by graffiti three times this year. She said no one likes the graffiti and thinks the proximity of the bars on the Square is to blame because the graffiti is done by kids as a practical joke because they’re bored.

Each wall of the building was been marked with graffiti and two sides were not covered up. Thomas said the City of San Marcos takes a while to come clean up the graffiti. The white brick still has faint outlines of the original graffiti. One tag that said ‘shrooms’ had been pressure washed but each letter was still clear enough to make out. The tags were large and in different colors and styles, indicating it was probably more than one culprit. The graffiti that was left up was a stencil repeated at least 12 times of a woman that had an x on her hand and ‘x hard x core’ vertically along the side.

Graffiti Wall

During a public forum about the proposed ordinance, it was suggested the city look into creating a legal graffiti wall or zone so artists can go there instead of illegally marking on private property.

In an email interview with San Marcos Police Chief Howard Williams he said he hopes to hear other suggestions other to reduce illegal graffiti and mentioned the legal graffiti wall, “Perhaps designated place for people to express themselves would be appropriate.”

Communication design student and graffiti artist, Joey Morales, said he did not support the ordinance because he an art student and carries markers and paint supplies with him often but does not intend to graffiti private property, but rather uses them for class or at his home. He went to a public forum about the ordinance and discussed creating a graffiti wall away from local businesses and it could be used as a place to draw in visitors or artists from other cities to appreciate graffiti as an art form. The graffiti wall is being debated but no action has been taken.

According to the website of Graffiti Hurts – Care For Your Community, a grassroots organization, said data shows no decrease in arrests for graffiti in cities where there are legal and sends a mixed message to the community. A study conducted in 2006 in Los Angeles studied if a mural would prevent illegal graffiti in the surrounding area and it was discovered it did not prevent graffiti but there were less instances of it.

Background Information

Graffiti is drawing or marking on a surface. Graffiti can be viewed as vandalism or street art. Graffiti, as an urban expression, started in the northeast part of the country, in places like Philadelphia and New York City in late 1960s. Graffiti started popping up around the country and even the New York Times did an article about a graffiti artist, “Taki 183 Spawns Pen Pals,” who began writing his nickname and street number in subways. Graffiti can be found anywhere in any city: trains, subways, fences, walls, roads, bathroom stalls, etc. The city of San Marcos is no exception.

People graffiti for different reasons; graffiti can be an art form, a way to protest or rebel, a way to gain popularity and skill be drawing on a public place, and other graffiti is gang related and marks gang territories.

In a 2008 press release to encourage the community to get involved in a Graffiti Abatement Initiative, San Marcos Mayor Susan Narvaiz is quoted, "“While the graffiti problem in San Marcos is not severe, it is a quality of life issue. We want to enlist the help of the community to eliminate graffiti as quickly as possible.”

Debates about the visual quality, the meaning, and the defiance of graffiti go on in every community. The San Marcos community has created a debate about graffiti, but not about posted graffiti, but before the graffiti is put up and someone is holding material with the intent to make graffiti. The San Marcos Police has a proposed graffiti ordinance (explained earlier in the blog with a link to it) that has some members of the community supporting it and others wary of the intent and enforcement.

San Marcos Graffiti

The majority of graffiti in San Marcos is located in downtown area or on LBJ Dr. One abandoned building on Hutchinson was over run with graffiti on all sides and on the second story.

One graffiti artist from San Antonio, Eddie Martinez, said graffiti is like an addiction or disease, it doesn't just stop. Joey Morales, an artist from Waco, said once one tag goes up then many others will pop up around the area. Morales said graffiti is impossible to prevent once it’s started and grows in a community. The University Star created this video of Joey Morales speaking up about his stance on the ordinance, please click the link for more information.

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