By Elizabeth Weise
How brazen are graffiti taggers in San Francisco?
More than you could possibly imagine, found Glen Park resident Kevin Jones.
On Saturday, Dec. 26, in broad daylight, Jones was standing in line to use the Bank of American ATM across the street from Canyon market on Diamond St.
As he describes it, a man in his 20s or 30s walked up, pulled out a marker and despoiled a newspaper box right in front of where he was standing with graffiti.
Then, the guy “stood back and took a picture of his work with his iPhone,” Jones said.
The tagger seemed unconcerned when Jones pulled out his camera and in turn took a photo of him.
Next, the man walked over to the Canyon Market’s outdoor seating area and sat in a chair and stared across the street, admiring his handiwork.
“I grabbed another shot and told him I got him,” Jones said. He has since turned the photos over to the San Francisco Police.
Perhaps there’s another explanation for this. Perhaps the man who tagged the newspaper box owns it (okay, unlikely.) Perhaps he doesn’t know it’s illegal to tag other people’s property. Perhaps he doesn’t know that people don’t care to look at graffiti-covered public infrastructure.
If caught, he could face expensive clean up charges. The San Francisco’s city attorney’s office has asked the courts to let the City sue taggers for damages to cover graffiti cleanup.
You can read about it in the SF Chronicle, here.