Someone upset that the previous thread on the graffiti vandalism at the Hagerstown Roundhouse Museum was locked shared with me these photos of further politically-themed vandalism at the rail preservation property at which he volunteers.

I'm choosing not to ID the location in question, on the theme of "it could be any of us" (which, remember, was also raised in a different form in the previous thread). I also chose not to post a couple example of more egregious profanities.
The line in question is what I would describe as "rural but very close to urban areas"--basically a rural area outside a suburb of a major metropolitan area, pretty much what many of us need to attract reasonable traffic. "Suburban sprawl" is definitely hitting the area--as it turns out, I know someone who just bought a condo in that area to get away from the increasing stupidity (his word, not mine) of the city suburb he was in.

The locations of the graffiti attacks have to be hiked to, not beside a busy road or whatnot.

To quote the sharer:



The first photo he alleges to be "gang signs."

Have any of you checked your lines lately, especially if your operations are in limbo from you-know-what??

Before this goes all political and devolves into something that gets deleted, I’d like to stress that most of the graffiti/vandalism like this is done by those that have yet to reach the age where the prefrontal cortex has fully matured. There’s really nothing political that drives it. They think it’s funny and the reward is simply the thrill of not getting caught.

That said, we’ve had some success in out of the way places with high definition trail cams strategically placed and moved frequently in catching trespassers.

Can we acknowledge that ADMIV consistently and unnecessarily injects his politics into posts here?

I find the tone and content of the post above to be offensive, and I don't think this is evidence of any leftist "War on History" nonsense. Young people have been painting graffiti on railway museum property for decades.

This vandalism is frustrating, but it seems to include a gamut of thoughts, including symbols of white supremacy, satanism, and fascism.

I'm not injecting the politics into this.

The member of this forum who shared this with me is. I'll take the flak on his behalf.

This is an issue that's coming to haunt us more and more now.

What, if anything, can or should we do about it?

Putting aside the content of it, I'm not sure what distinguishes these incidents from any other grafitti activity. Rather than worry about the views or intentions of the perpetrators, I think the most you can do is consider what you can do to protect your property and equipment from *any* kind of vandalism and tagging.

The issue is because of political sensitivity that these acts of graffiti may not get investigated or prosecuted to the fullest extent. It's hard enough chasing graffiti bandits with out a political quagmire involved.

My thoughts are increase security lighting, keep locations clean and organized, have members do random vista have visible and overt as well as covert cameras. Always request criminal damage claim with the prosecutor as punishment

One key point is the question of whether political graffiti is suddenly up-surging with the times, and rapidly adding to the rate of graffiti production. I agree that the act of graffiti, regardless of motivation, is political with the popular belief that graffiti is artistic expression and free speech, and thus should be respected regardless of private property rights. I don’t know how common this is, but I have also read that some local authorities will fine graffiti victims for not removing graffiti within a specified time.

Some points to consider:

Per my previous post, studies show that most vandals fall in the 15 to 21 years of age range. So the likelihood that the graffiti as illustrated in the original post is actually any kind of political expression is small.

I don’t know about other states but in Ohio, graffiti of any kind is considered vandalism which is a felony, the degree depending on the monetary amount of damage done. Juvenile vandalism is handled via the juvenile justice system in which the court can hold the parents monetarily responsible if the offender is under the age of 18. Fines and restitution are paid through the court so it’s a bit harder to shirk your responsibilities.

The hard part in dealing with vandals is having the evidence to arrest/convict the perpetrators.

I kinda have a problem with fining for not removing graffiti within a certain amount of time but I can see the point. These are usually local statutes. You’d be wise to consider graffiti removal as a cost of doing business if it’s a recurring problem. Some municipalities have a fund or program of some sort to help residents or business owners restore or cover up graffiti.

Oddball food for thought: As for “graffiti art”, I recall a study done in Seattle some time back where something like 40% of business owners didn’t consider it a problem. Interestingly, those were the ones that had never been victims.

If you think young people in those age brackets are not politically active--or at least not being goaded into believing they have a say in politics--you are simply kidding yourselves.

We can argue endlessly and unproductively as to 1) whether their "activism" is really theirs or encouraged by/the result of adults applying pressure to them (parents taking kids to protests, educators giving students class credit for participating in approved protests, etc.); and/or 2) whether their "activism" is sophisticated or mature enough to be taken seriously.

There are activists out there pushing to lower the Federal voting age to 16; they tend to not get taken seriously: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/28/91607891 ... ep-for-gen

When I was a kid of that age, any vandalism that I might've done would definitely have been of the type that would get the biggest reaction from "the squares".

If it's in a conservative area, this makes plenty of sense.

What sense does it make and why does it make it?

Knowing the area of the original post, I checked:
The area/county in question, according to articles from just a week or two ago, is almost evenly divided in major party registration, with the city/cities being Democrat-leaning, the rural areas being Republican-leaning, and a steady influx of Democrats moving further out from the bigger city down the interstates the primary reason for the shift from "red" to "purple".

From what I can tell, the area the excursion RR is in is one of those areas that used to be "quaintly" rural but is now getting a bit too much "urban sprawl," and a few "NIMBYs" along with them. I seem to remember some housing developments springing up along part of the track last time I visited, and a road crossing the tracks formerly being two-lane and now four-lane with median and overhead crossing flashers. One could legitimately raise the question if the RR will be able to retain its "rural charm" for much longer.

Feel free to apply your prejudices to that scenario and interpret forthwith.

Same thing happening in California. Some of our properties have been in my family for 4 generations. NEVER did we have to lock anything up, neighbors all were multi-generation friends. I have lived on the same parcel of land for 59 out of 68 years, never even locked our doors, ever. This past 12 months we have had equipment, buildings and such vandalized with "BLM" sprayed on it, various mexican gang turf markings, anti Trump slogans and what not. Two months ago my 71 year old "white" brother was attacked on the property from behind, broken arm, broken foot and damaged shoulder. Broken teeth. Hospitalized with a concussion with minor brain hemorrhage. 10:30 AM attacked and beaten from behind. They never touched his expensive phone, cash in pocket or wallet. Property sprayed with political stuff. We are disposing of that property after 3 generations and moving farther out. We are good for what another 8 years so I am not going to spend the balance of my life looking at spray can vandalism.

My primary concern with this just starting 2 foot gauge project is not government regulations. This property is near the south border of California. Historically no one ever entered the property, ever. NO public roads near it. BUT to keep a lot of expensive equipment there it has to be in secured locked buildings. Even those will be broken into and stripped if there is not a 24 hour armed guard on the property. Brass thieves, theft for scrap metal selling and what not. In the past 18 months, on one of our properties, thieves came in and forced open equipment, just stripping out brass radiators, batteries, alternators and even going under the vehicles and stripping out the catalytic converters. Local law enforcement looked and just shrugged their shoulders. I found one of my truck radiators in a scrap metal dealer in town. Here it is required to have photo ID to sell scrap to a dealer. The dealer conveniently had no record of the sale but offered to sell it back to me for about 100usd. I will refrain from what he was like.

Creeping suburbia cancer I call it. Perhaps this post will get flagged or I will get put on suspension for telling the truth here on our property with Graffiti vandalism.

Dan

Generally it's because graffiti like this, and vandalism in general, is often done to say "fuck you". So therefore, the vandal will seek to employ messages designed to impart the biggest "fuck you" message to the observer.

In areas that are conservative in nature, those messages will likely look like these. In urban areas they'd be saying "MAGA".

It's not a tool of a particular ideology, it's a tool of immature minds lashing out to a world in which they feel otherwise powerless.

Am I the only person who went through a pointlessly rebellious phase?

Ed - Nah. There’s two of us.