Bloomberg To Sign Three Tough Anti-Graffiti Bills Thursday
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The mayor plans to sign into law on Thursday a group of bills that toughen the city’s penalties for graffiti vandalism and make it illegal for anyone under 21 to carry spray paint or etching tools on public property.
The legislation, separated into three bills, also makes owners of large commercial and residential properties responsible for cleaning graffiti off their buildings.
The anti-graffiti legislation was part of a slew of bills – 27 in all – that the City Council passed in its final stated meeting last week. A chief advocate of the bills, Council Member Peter Val lone Jr., said they had been in the works for two years as lawmakers struggled to negotiate the provisions with community groups, the Police Department, and the Bloomberg administration. He cast the new restrictions and penalties as a needed response to a rise in graffiti vandalism in recent years.
“There were a lot of people who had to be convinced that the police needed these tools to continue to fight graffiti,” Mr. Vallone, a Democrat of Queens who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee, said.
Under the previous law, carrying spray paint or other graffiti tools was considered a crime only if police could demonstrate that the suspect intended to deface property. This was almost impossible for police to enforce, Mr. Vallone said.
The new bill exempts those who have permission to carry the materials or those who are carrying them for a job related purpose.
“We’re not talking here about your paperboy. We’re talking about criminals,” Mr. Vallone said. “There’s no good excuse for anyone under 21 to be walking around the streets with a can of spray paint.”
The bill also raises fines for misdemeanor graffiti violations to $1,000 from $500 and increases the possible jail term to a year from three months. Youthful violators of the new possession ban face a fine of $250 and 15 days in jail.
The final versions of the three bills met little opposition from City Council members, but one lawmaker, Erik Dilan of Brooklyn, voted against the bill that holds commercial and residential property owners responsible for graffiti on their buildings.
“People that own buildings that are victims of vandalism are essentially crime victims,” Mr. Dilan, a Democrat, said, adding that it was “fundamentally wrong” to punish owners for violations they didn’t commit. “Most property owners don’t want graffiti on their buildings and want to do the right thing,” he said.
The bill mandates that owners of commercial buildings or residential buildings with six or more units must remove graffiti within 60 days of a city notice or face a fine of up to $300. Building owners also can petition the city to remove the graffiti free of charge.
The new laws come nearly a year after Mayor Bloomberg, citing a growing quality of life problem, announced an anti-graffiti initiative in his State of the City address. A spokesman for the mayor, Jordan Barowitz, said Mr. Bloomberg supported the measures as “valuable tools in the city’s war on graffiti.”
The mayor on Thursday also is expected to sign into law an amendment to the noise code and a measure creating a commission to study ways to increase broadband Internet access across the city.