Cities welcome law making gang-related graffiti a crime

The owners of a small Rainier Valley auto-glass shop keep four shelves stocked with the paint they use to cover the graffiti that frequently appears outside the store.

The building gets tagged all the time, complained Annie Zhang and Gordon Situ of Golden Auto Glass. They go out and paint over the symbols to keep up the neighborhood's appearance, only to get hit again.

"Sometimes next day," Situ said. "Sometimes next week."

Faced with an increasing wave of graffiti, much of it gang-related, many Seattle-area cities are welcoming a new law that specifically makes gang-related graffiti a crime and allows property owners to recover civil penalties and costs. Police and other officials said they have seen an increase in gang-related violence and graffiti over the past year.

"We do have a problem with graffiti," said Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess. "In the first quarter of 2008, it was up 33 percent in Seattle parks compared to the first quarter of '07."

The graffiti measure is a small part of a larger anti-street-gang state law, House Bill 2712, signed in March, which goes into effect today.

Police and prosecutors said the larger law's primary purpose is to officially define "street gangs" and their members and create a statewide database for information on gangs.

The new law also provides funding to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs which will be allocated to local police to combat street-gang activity and deal with gang-related graffiti.

"Gang graffiti is of a much different thing than just tagging." said Lt. Ronald Wilson, commander of the Seattle Police Department's gang and robbery units.

"It's used to mark territory, intimidate, make threats and send messages to rival gangs. It's much more destructive than just property damage."

While tagging has been prosecutable as malicious mischief under the old law, the new law means those convicted of gang graffiti could be forced to pay a penalty in addition to damages.

Tom McBride, the executive secretary for the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said he doesn't expect the new measure to alter much in the criminal courts in terms of graffiti prosecution.

The new law, however, will allow prosecutors to seek longer prison sentences for people convicted of gang-related felonies.

The new law defines a "criminal street gang" as "any ongoing organization, association or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, having a common name or common identifying sign or symbol, having as one of its primary activities the commission of criminal acts, and whose members or associates individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal street-gang activity."

Annie Zhang said she doesn't really expect to reap any benefits from the new law. She doesn't know if the graffiti her husband paints over is gang-related or not. And she doesn't think the government is going to end up paying for it.

All she knows is that she's already lost time, effort and gas money to the fight.

"We don't want the money, we just want them to stop. It's a waste," she said.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com