The Moose Jaw Police Service is searching for two wannabe Picassos who are believed to have vandalized several structures in Crescent Park with graffiti, including the amphitheatre mural.
The vandals are thought to have struck between Feb. 23 to 24 and tagged the library, art museum, cenotaph, wooden bridge, a tree and the mural with the symbol “060 IG,” explained Const. Kyle Cunningham. The police service used video surveillance and is confident that at least two people are involved.
Employees with the parks and recreation department were notified about the graffiti and moved quickly to clean it up. A high-pressure steam machine was brought in to remove the tags to avoid damaging the mural.
While city crews worked to remove the damage, pictures made their way onto social media before local news outlets became aware and reported it, Cunningham said. Despite the lag in reporting, it is still important to promote this news so that residents can help the police.
“The last time we used Crime Stoppers, we were able to make an arrest with that larger vandalism incident in the downtown area as well, (with the) ‘I’m sorry’ (tags) incident,” Cunningham added. “So that one we were able to make an arrest and move ahead with a number of charges for that individual.”
An investigation starts when someone sees vandalism or mischief and reports it. The police service then ensures that the vandalism isn’t dated and hasn’t been reported before, Cunningham explained. A complaint is generated for each new incident; if the vandalism is nearby, such as at the library and mural, each will be investigated separately and as a whole.
Doing this allows police to gather witness information and data from video surveillance. They can sift through the video footage to identify suspects and hopefully lay charges, he added.
Immature kids
This isn’t the first time that the Crescent Park mural has been vandalized because it seems every year youths target parks with graffiti or destroy flower beds, said Grant McLaughlin, a community artist who painted the amphitheatre mural in 2003. He completed plenty of touch-up work on this mural last summer.
“There’s always going to be a new generation of immature kids. In general, most of the murals are left alone, but parks — it doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s parks or playgrounds — that’s kind of what they do … ,” he continued. “These aren’t very brave people, but they would probably be doing something more damaging and stupider if they weren’t doing this.”
This vandalism reflects what society thinks these days, he added, as some people do not respect themselves or their community and want attention.
Not much can be done to curb this type of vandalism since Moose Jaw doesn’t have the same graffiti problem as Winnipeg, McLaughlin said.
“We can’t, in our country, do much for penalties because they’ve pretty much eliminated responsibilities, (which) is an obsolete word,” he continued. “I suggested they put a camera up when the mural was being installed … but they really wouldn’t do anything even if they did catch (the vandals).”
McLaughlin stated that parents should be encouraged to take more responsibility for their children and instill responsibility in them. Kids should be encouraged to join extracurricular activities.
McLaughlin noted that he was once a teacher, but there is only so much teachers can do to influence children. It’s up to the parents to do better and even acquire better parenting skills.
One idea McLaughlin had was for retail stores to better monitor to whom they are selling spray paint. He also thought that stores could add an extra cost to every spray can sold to help clean up graffiti when it happens.
