According to the Los Angeles County Sherrif’s office MTA is responsible for some of the city’s most notorious acts of vandalism, most notably L.A.’s largest tag: the giant, half-mile-long “MTA” scrawl that appeared last year along the concrete banks of the Los Angeles River near downtown. (See figure 1.1)

Figure 1.1

More information will surely follow.

Source: 7 alleged members of L.A. tagging crew arrested

Graffiti vandals who spray-painted an historic railway carriage at Richmond Vale Railway Museum – causing damage estimated at $1800 – may be sorry they left their calling card.

A tag on one of the 52-year-old carriages left shortly after Christmas has been traced to that of a known graffiti gang based in west Newcastle – the group that struck at the same spot two years ago who were caught and convicted.

Museum director Ray Hennessy said the graffiti tag had been traced and identified by State Rail officials and details were given to the NSW Police Graffiti Unit at Newcastle.

“It’s great news. We are confident these vandals will soon be caught,” Mr Hennessy told the Maitland Mercury yesterday.

But the spirits of heartbroken volunteers were further on the mend when Mr Hennessy also revealed his latest plan to deal with vandals.

“We estimate that the cost of removing spray paint in vandalism such as this would be about $1800, mostly for expensive cleaning materials,” he said.

“But this latest incident has also provided us with an opportunity to test a project we have had in mind for some time.”

“We will use this painted carriage to try out a new scheme – painting straight over the graffiti.”

Mr Hennessy said he would paint the silver carriage in the same brown and yellow colours of the old-style wooden carriages.

“I have been wondering what would happen if we painted these colours straight onto a spray-painted carriage without first removing the graffiti,” he said.

“Now we have the very opportunity to try out this scheme.”

“If it works and the graffiti is obliterated in the new colours, it could mean a whole new approach to repairing such damage.”

“To restore this particular carriage by painting over the graffiti would probably cost us $500 – instead of the $1800 it would have cost.”

Mr Hennessy revealed another trick to obliterate graffiti vandals’ tags as soon as possible after they had struck.

“Past experience has shown that vandals become very deterred if they can’t show pictures of their work to their mates,” he said.

“We know this, because we cleaned the paint off one carriage as soon as it was discovered.”

“The vandals were pretty annoyed – and they never came back.”

In the latest incident, Mr Hennessy said the vandals had cut a hole through a fence, sighted a security camera and run out again – cutting another hole in the fence further down.

“They came up under another security camera there,” he said.

“But they pulled a pipe from the ground and pushed one camera out of position, so it was pointing at the sky.”

“Then they carried out their dirty work on the other side of the carriages.”

“They must have been there for quite a while too.”

Mr Hennessy said security at the museum site would be further upgraded, with two more security cameras being installed.

Source: $1800 vandalism bill hurts railway museum

In the past month, graffiti tags such as SON and MAG scrawled in orange, silver, yellow or gold spray paint have been turning up on the sides of numerous businesses in Prices Corner, Belvedere and Christiana Hundred.

Investigators probing these acts of vandalism Thursday arrested the alleged vandal — a 21-year-old Newport man — and charged him with defacing more than a dozen area properties.

Following a raid at his home, state police charged Joseph T. Marro Jr. of the 500 block of Augustine St. with 10 counts of graffiti, one count of possession of graffiti tools, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of prescription drugs not in their original container.

Marro was released after posting $7,000 bail, state police Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh said.

During the search of his home, detectives confiscated a large bag of magnum markers, Sharpies and other markers in various colors commonly used to produce graffiti work, 13 grams of marijuana and a marijuana pipe.

Investigators also seized Marro’s computer and art work.

During questioning, Marro waived his rights, police said, and acknowledged that he was responsible for spray painting his tags, including SON, at these businesses:

•Cash Advance, 2000 Newport-Gap Pike.

•Boston Market, 3130 Kirkwood Highway.

•Jersey barrier, Del. 100 south of Del. 2.

•Celestial Church of Christ, 1110 Newport-Gap Pike, Belvedere. (WTF were you thinking?!!)

•McDonald’s in Midway Plaza, 4625 Kirkwood Highway.

•Ted’s Liquors, 1202 Newport-Gap Pike, Belvedere.

•7-Eleven, 298 S. Maryland Ave., north of Boxwood Road, Christiana Hundred.

•Deer Head Hot Dogs, 620 S. Maryland Ave., north of Boxwood Road, Christiana Hundred.

•The Centerville Road underpass at Del. 141 near Prices Corner.

•Pep Boys on Kirkwood Highway, Prices Corner.

•A billboard sign at Citgo, 3927 Kirkwood Highway.

Read More: Alleged vandal, 21, arrested for graffiti

If you drive along the Lakefront on Route 5 you’ll see a new greeting welcoming visitors to the Queen City. This message, however, is downright insulting and laced with profanity. Splattered across an Ohio Street building owned by Advantage Trim and Lumber, huge eight foot high letters spell out a variation of the mother of all dirty four-letter words.

The group is called “Buffalo’s Finest Vandals” and they have spray-painted their way to ignominy by defacing property throughout the city. However, this time, their actions have been caught on surveillance camera, and Buffalo Police Detectives have some pretty good evidence to assist them in finding the two vandals responsible.

Read More: Obscene Graffiti Along Route 5

There, at the side of the Long Island Expressway, on a retaining wall of Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, is one of the more significant graffiti tags: JA.

It’s not especially fancy or artistic, but it is a reminder that JA – Jonathan Avildsen – is still out there, leaving his mark and reaffirming his reputation as perhaps the city’s most elusive tagger.

“He’s tough,” says a police source familiar with JA. “He’s not always out there. He’s not easy to find, not easy to catch. He’s like a ghost.”

While graffiti still is scorned by public officials, it is increasingly part of the cultural mainstream, and JA, 38, remains one of the city’s most prolific taggers and possibly its most interesting case study.

If the name Jonathan Avildsen sounds somehow familiar, there’s a reason for that. JA’s father, John Avildsen, is a director who won the Oscar for “Rocky” and also directed “The Karate Kid” and “Lean on Me,” among other films.

JA himself is no stranger to Hollywood, with a handful of minor roles on television and in films, including “The Karate Kid Part III” and “Rocky V,” both directed by his dad. In “Rocky V,” JA plays a drug addict – a case, police sources say, of art imitating life, as drugs have long been JA’s problem.

That might explain why he is said to be estranged – or at least not all that close – to his father. Father and son made headlines in 1989 when JA was sued by the city for tagging subway cars and signs along the Henry Hudson Parkway.

Read More: Tagging legendary graffiti artist JA

A graffiti vandal, making the second stop on what his lawyer called a “triborough tour” of the city’s courts, was conditionally discharged Thursday and was ordered to pay $5,000.

Alain Mariduena pleaded guilty in Manhattan in August to one count of third-degree criminal mischief for writing graffiti, much of it on subway cars, with his tag, KET. Conditional discharge means he must avoid future criminal conduct and pay his fine; the sentence differs from probation because it’s not court supervised.

According to his lawyer, Ronald Kuby, Mariduena’s tag has become known around the world.

Kuby said his client would be sentenced Friday for graffiti crimes in Brooklyn. In that case he is to be spared jail, fined $3,000 and ordered to paint a mural.

Last month, Mariduena, 36, was sentenced in Queens to probation and ordered to pay $1,274 in restitution and a $3,000 fine for graffiti offenses, Kuby said.

Mariduena, who lives in the Inwood section of Manhattan, said on his Web site that he pleaded guilty in all three cases to avoid prison. Kuby said Mariduena has retired from illegal graffiti.

Read More: New York graffiti vandal KET is fined $5,000
More: In Plea Deal, Artist Admits to Subway Graffiti in 3 Boroughs

A vandal linked to more than 1,000 graffiti incidents causing more than £200,000 in damage has been sentenced to 300 hours’ community service.

Daniel Tyndale, 21, who has had addresses in St Philips, Bristol and Devizes, Wiltshire, received a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years.

He admitted a series of offences throughout the Bristol area.

He was charged with nine counts of criminal damage with 350 other graffiti offences being considered.

Tyndale sprayed graffiti on numerous locations including the listed Bristol University psychology building, a van on Gloucester Road, the Polish church on Cheltenham Road, a shop near Christmas Steps, Newfoundland Road police station and the metal footbridge near Bower Ashton.

Read More: Vandal sentenced over graffiti

A prolific graffiti vandal has been banned from the top deck of any public transport bus anywhere in the country.

Billy Murrell, 17, from Plumstead, south-east London, has several criminal damage convictions on trains and buses using marker pens, police said.

It is the first time Transport for London (TfL) has obtained an anti-social order against a “tagger”.

The order also bans Murrell from carrying marker pens or sharp instruments on public transport.

The anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) which is valid for three years, was issued at Greenwich Magistrates Court on 12 September.

Read More: Top deck ban for graffiti vandal

Sharon Balbi, 42, was given an interim anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) at Reading Magistrates’ Court.

On Friday she admitted 13 offences of criminal damage and asked for a further 223 offences dating back to 2004 to be taken into consideration.

Balbi, of Tilehurst, Reading, sprayed tags, including GUS, ICE, ART, CSI and HAWK on vehicles around Reading.

The Asbo bans Balbi from carrying items that could be used for carrying out graffiti offences.

Read More: Paint ban after vehicle graffiti