Yesterday, Martin Luther King Jr Day, Lisa was at home enjoying the day off when she heard a group of teenagers outside the house. She looked out the upper story window and saw that they were messing around with the neighborhood garden that had been planted this past summer on the corner of Division and Riverview. Concerned they were up to no good she stepped out on to the porch and told them, "If you are doing good then that's great but know that if you are doing something you shouldn't be we're watching." One of the kids responded "We're doing good" and Lisa said, "Great" before going back in the house (but not all the way so she could hear what happened next).

A moment later one of the boys said "What difference does it make to her, it isn't her property" to which Lisa responded by stepping back out and saying, "It is our concern, we keep it up; it's the neighborhoods park." The boy just shrugged and mumbled "whatever" before the group wandered off. Lisa called me and told me about the exchange and then we basically just forgot about it.

Until this morning. When I went out for Rosie's morning walk I noticed that there was some spray painted vandalism on our sidewalk that said "Mob for Life" I also saw the same tag along the 4x4 that borders the garden Lisa was protecting yesterday as well as some other errant bits of paint scattered around the street, on some poles, and on a no-parking sign. I walked Rosie then took Lisa out to show her and she saw another part of our sidewalk had been painted. This one said "niger" except the single 'g' was painted backwards. There was also an arrow going from the word pointing directly at our house. Signal received loud and clear.



I called the cops and reported it though I doubt that will make much of a difference; our police force is pretty busy dealing with more destructive issues than some teens painting on our sidewalk. So, tonight, when I get home I'll be pressure washing off the sidewalk - hopefully it will come off without too much trouble; otherwise I'll have to bleach it or something which will leave its own mark.

Overall I was pretty glad it was just the sidewalk - they didn't mess with our cars or the house and they also left the playground alone (a first for taggers in our area). I'm tempted to silently snipe out on the porch tonight with my paintball gun - I figure they like paint so much maybe they'd enjoy getting some back. Of course, that would just escalate everything and I really don't want things getting worse. Hopefully just removing the current stuff will be enough to move on.



UPDATE: The cops came by this morning, took photos of everything and told us that we are the 3rd or 4th complaint about the vandals. The taggers are new to the area and one of the boys is known by someone in our neighborhood.

#MyLife