One step: Cleaning up graffiti a good start to combating gangs

Parts of Goldsboro are looking better this week thanks to the efforts of a group of local law enforcement officers and city residents who spent a day last week cleaning away or covering up graffiti in scores of places around town.

Criminal gangs mark their "territory" with such graffiti, and getting rid of some of it can only be a step in the right direction in dealing with their spread. It is only a symbolic gesture, to be sure, but erasing the symbols of gangs and gang activity sends a message to those gangs -- they will not be tolerated.

Of course, some of the graffiti will return. But maybe not in as many places. Police say they have ways of monitoring these gang "hot spots," perhaps enabling them to catch the perpetrators in the act.

One officer who was  part of the cleanup said business and property owners have grown tired of the graffiti and what it stands for. Catching these vandals in the act would be a good way to cut down on the problem.

At least it's a start.

Published in Editorials on June 5, 2017 9:49 PM