Aside from the rank and file abhorrence by the "landed gentry" of 21st century America for the cultural institution known as "tagging" (idiosyncratic graffiti-writing, sometimes associated with gang activity), the actual threat posed by taggers is minimal. It sucks to be the one who has to clean the spray-painted walls, but I don't think anyone in their right minds thinks that anyone should die because of the roguish practice.
Yet lately at least two people have died in this country directly due to tagging; the first was 16-year-old Victor Montano, a young man visiting his family in Kenner, killed when a Levee District police officer ran him down in Jefferson Parish. Montana's death, characterized as an accident by the Levee District police, took place after he was caught tagging a levee wall. He fled the scene, and the police officer pursued, running over the young man when he fell trying to climb a fence.
Less than one day later, on the other side of the continent, another killing took place in the aftermath of another tagging. This time, though, the young man caught red-handed with spray paint got away, and the person who caught him is now dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Los Angeles resident Maria Hicks rolled up on a tagger at work in her neighborhood, honked her horn and flashed her lights at him, and as he took flight another car drove up behind Hicks. From that car came several gunshots, one of which hit Hicks in the back of the head. She died two days later at the hospital.
Neither of these two people should be dead. The comfortably callous might say that Montano himself is to blame for his death, as if painting a wall illegally and fleeing the scene is some kind of capital offense. It may well have been an accidental death, as the police say. Or it may have been a gung-ho cop recklessly in pursuit of a miscreant, driving so fast that he couldn't see that the young man had fallen down. Frankly, even if the death was intentional, there's no way that cop is going to be held accountable. As we know from the Robert Davis French Quarter beating case, it's open season on blacks in New Orleans. Now, given the special status of Latinos in Jefferson Parish (Taquerias, anyone?) it could well be that Latino young men should be extra vigilant around Jefferson law enforcement.
In Los Angeles, Ms. Hicks' passing was mourned by a crowd of neighbors, friends, and family, who put a memorial to her on the tagged wall. LA Sheriffs have arrested three people in connection with her slaying, and communities are coming together to talk about gang-related vandalism. Callous people of another variety might point out that she shouldn't have been messing with the vandal, because who knows what might come of tangling with minor-league criminals.
But she was only trying to watch out for her community. There's no way she could have expected shots from behind. Montano was likely just bored in Kenner, no surprise at that, and there's no way he should have expected to die while making his getaway.
The apparently gang-related LA killing and the cop-related death of Montano both underscore some basic truths about American culture. American youth need an outlet for creativity and social acceptance. Most taggers I have known aren't gang-bangers, just bored kids getting their kicks at someone else's expense. They are creative people who find unsanctioned outlets for their energies, and as they mature they find better ways of expressing themselves. As for gang-bangers marking turf, that's an entirely different issue, one fueled by drug prohibition, poverty, and abysmal educational systems.
Americans venerate the cultural rebel (so long as she or he doesn't damage our property or property values) and the hippest of us even visit museum displays of graffiti artists. There's no way to put an end to the practice of tagging; even if spray paint cans were outlawed, there are dozens more ways to vandalize signs, walls, and buildings.
The last thing we need, though is for more creative taggers or community-minded residents to die as a result of graffiti.
