Suitably Flip

Eurovandals Mucking Up New York

New York thrives on tourism.  But frankly, these Germans, Italians, French, Spaniards, Swiss, Danes, and Norwegians can all go back where they came from.

Subway graffiti is back - and Europeans are to blame.

Most of the major graffiti attacks on trains are being carried out by twentysomething Europeans who want to leave their marks where the graffiti culture was born, experts said.

They come from Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway to spray-paint their murals and elaborate tags - called "pieces" - on trains, fully aware that the Transit Authority will scrub them clean within hours.
...
When [retired NYPD Transit Bureau Lt. Steven] Mona and his team reviewed last year's graffiti hits, they estimated that 70% were carried out by Europeans.

Sounds like a perfect "broken windows" opportunity.  Under Rudy Giuliani, New York enjoyed immense success at lowering violent crime across the board, thanks in part to tough stances on petty crimes like vandalism, turnstile-hopping, public urination, and even the squeegee men.

While most of those lesser nuisances remain under control, according to the Daily News, subway defacement has tripled in the last two years.

If our current Mayoral White House hopeful wants to polish his own executive bona fides (now that we're safe from deliciousness), he might do well to follow Rudy's example by cracking down on these marauding Euro-taggers.  

Comments

Eurovandals Mucking Up New York

New York thrives on tourism.  But frankly, these Germans, Italians, French, Spaniards, Swiss, Danes, and Norwegians can all go back where they came from.

Subway graffiti is back - and Europeans are to blame.

Most of the major graffiti attacks on trains are being carried out by twentysomething Europeans who want to leave their marks where the graffiti culture was born, experts said.

They come from Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway to spray-paint their murals and elaborate tags - called "pieces" - on trains, fully aware that the Transit Authority will scrub them clean within hours.
...
When [retired NYPD Transit Bureau Lt. Steven] Mona and his team reviewed last year's graffiti hits, they estimated that 70% were carried out by Europeans.

Sounds like a perfect "broken windows" opportunity.  Under Rudy Giuliani, New York enjoyed immense success at lowering violent crime across the board, thanks in part to tough stances on petty crimes like vandalism, turnstile-hopping, public urination, and even the squeegee men.

While most of those lesser nuisances remain under control, according to the Daily News, subway defacement has tripled in the last two years.

If our current Mayoral White House hopeful wants to polish his own executive bona fides (now that we're safe from deliciousness), he might do well to follow Rudy's example by cracking down on these marauding Euro-taggers.