Moscow police detained a 15-year-old male last week in connection with a rise in graffiti vandalism in Moscow city parks, Moscow Police Chief David Duke said. Since August 1, there have been more than ten reported graffiti defacements in parks throughout Moscow, concerning police and the Moscow Parks and Recreation Department alike.
Duke said the rise in graffiti is uncommon in its scope and its locations.
“It seems like they’re targeting park structures and it’s all occurring during the late evening hours. Based on this, there seems to be a pattern,” he said. “Every once in a while we’ll get tagging over a set period of time and most of it has occurred in the downtown area.”
Vandalism reports heightened when a shelter wall at Hordemann’s Pond was spray-painted overnight. Additional vandalism reports were taken over the next several days at East City Park, Ghormley Park, Herons Hideout and Lena Whitmore Park.
“We believe the person or persons responsible using the spray paint walked through the different parks late at night,” Duke said. “The different cases are probably connected in some manner because in a few of them there were words drawn that didn’t make much sense other than them being scripted words. There were also some signs made that really couldn’t be identified and there was some vulgar
genitalia painted.”
Although there were no leads at first, the juvenile detained at 2:47 a.m. Aug. 14, is being charged with two counts of vandalism — one at Lena Whitmore and one at East City Park where he was caught.
“I’m glad the police have apprehended somebody,” said Tom Grundin, the parks and facilities manager with Moscow Parks and Recreation. “It might mean no more new cases of vandalism. In the past when we’ve had these kinds of things happen, we put the person to work cleaning up messes like the ones they made, and that usually deters them from doing it again.”
The Moscow Parks and Recreation Department is the entity that is tasked with the care and maintenance of city parks. Grundin said the cleanup process for these cases of graffiti have been expensive when the department takes into account the cost of cleaning supplies and time spent at each location.
In fact, he said it was especially troublesome when the defacement at Hordemann’s Pond was repeated again after the initial cleanup.
Duke said the detained juvenile was forwarded to youth services due to his age. He also said there is a lack of evidence to support the juvenile’s involvement in more than two of the open graffiti cases.
“Charges have been forwarded to youth services but these are the only charges. At this time we have not connected any of the previous vandalism to him. Since the 14th no new additional graffiti has been reported in the City parks,” he said.
Duke said adults who are accused of defacing property — with graffiti in particular — are usually charged with the misdemeanor offense of malicious injury. But, Duke said if the police are able to tie together most of the vandalism cases, then it’s possible it could escalate to a felony charge.
“We’re getting close the felony level if we can tie them together, but at this point we don’t have enough direct relationship to say that this is the same person because they’re all different in the way they were defaced,” Duke said.
Grundin asks that members of the Moscow community pay attention to the activities happening at city parks, and if anyone sees anything suspicious, report it to Moscow Police.
Amber Emery
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