Vandals strike with spray paint at Garden Homes Park in Ann Arbor
Graffiti on a pathway in Garden Homes Park in Ann Arbor on Thursday. Park officials said it is being cleaned up.
Angela Cesere | AnnArbor.com
Garden Homes Park in Ann Arbor is the latest area to fall prey to spray-painting vandals.
Residents in a neighborhood near the park, located on Fulmer Street in northwest Ann Arbor, are complaining of graffiti containing obscene symbols and curse words on a path and landscaping boulders in the park.
Jason Bibby, 38, lives near the park with his family and said he won’t take his two small children there anymore.
“It was quite obscene writing,” he said, adding that there was also “weird gang writing.”
Bibby said the spray painting occurred at some point Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
The city of Ann Arbor’s Parks Operation division confirmed it is aware of the incident and had crews out Friday morning cleaning up the park.
No reports have been filed with the Ann Arbor Police Department.
John Counts covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at johncounts@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
Goober
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 11:28 p.m.
I am shocked by many of the comments and what seems to be an unwillingness of parental control of children. Maybe, this is another example of what is wrong with our society. Evidentially, our society is morphing into one where we are too busy - let society raise and control my child.
Silly Sally
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 11:46 a.m.
The misguided Ann Arbor District Library conducts classes on spray painting during the Art Fairs, We reap what it sows, paying for both. Why should we be surprised?
catbehindthecouch
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 8:52 p.m.
I think you are a little misguided yourself. There are no spray painting classes at the library. There is a Graffiti Art Contest that happens once a year during art fair. Kids paint on canvas in the parking lot and a lesson in where paint is appropriate is included.
craigjjs
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 12:30 p.m.
Let's round up all the librarians; bastions of anarchy!
FormerMichRes
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 9:18 a.m.
There are always a few supporters of these taggers...until it's their property that's tagged. If these folks are under-aged or still living at home there may be a way to make their families responsible for clean-up costs. We had a tagger in our sub who was eventually caught. His family was handed the clean-up bill. Never saw anymore graffiti after the adults in the sub found out it was going to be their liability.
craigjjs
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 12:29 p.m.
Who is supporting the taggers? Straw man argument.
Silly Sally
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 11:48 a.m.
Why would anyone vote against this posting? Amazing! They must support graffiti as "art", as long as it is not on THEIR house or car or business.
EyeHeartA2
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 4:17 a.m.
Wait, what? I thought that graffiti was cool and hip? or is that only when it is done to a private business? It's so confusing around here.
Tesla
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 1:57 a.m.
Thats some seriously weak graffiti. Who did it? Helen Keller?
Mike S
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 2:16 a.m.
True… most of the graffiti around town is weak, but this tag is just sad.
quetzalcoatl
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 10:53 p.m.
I wouldn't worry about small children seeing graffitto like this (whatever "this" may actually be) since they only know it's a bad word after an adult tells them it is.
nickcarraweigh
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 10:43 p.m.
Maybe the police news should wait until there is a police report. A cocky raccoon sat on my fire escape last night, bold as brass, eating the bananas I keep out there so my ferret succeeds in his weight loss program. You can bet he stopped laughing when I opened up with my 30-round clip in the old Sig-Sauer. Send somebody around to take photos, so I can post them to Facebook.
djm12652
Fri, Jun 8, 2012 : 7:36 p.m.
Love Sigs!
Linda Peck
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 9:09 p.m.
I appreciate knowing what is going on in our town and in our public parks. Thank you for reporting this.
Major
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 7:47 p.m.
That was incredibly short sighted to publicize the criminals "handy work", something tells me there will now be an increase in tagging. Do you not know that's the game here A2.com? Get your graffiti in the news, publicized, goal #1 Wow did you blow it!!
Mike S
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 7:36 p.m.
Good job, annarbor.com, you publicized the graffiti tag for the world to see.
unclemercy
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 7:35 p.m.
thats almost as awful as the painting at mary beth doyle park off stone school.
grimmk
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 6:35 p.m.
Just hire them to do the public art display. With a few rules to make it "family friendly". Cheap and easy. Everyone wins.
Cathy
Sun, Jun 3, 2012 : 1:06 p.m.
Tagging is akin to a dog's spraying urine. It has nothing to do with wanting to showcase artistic talent.
smokeblwr
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 6:18 p.m.
Open carry? That would solve this. Nobody would spray paint if they knew somebody with protection could stop them.
G-Man
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 11:54 a.m.
I like your thinking..........Along with my Taurus Judge, a can of red spray paint to mark the perp's with a Scarlett letter.....
Ron Granger
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 12:18 a.m.
"Open carry? That would solve this." That would be more like "open carried away".
chubbybunny
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 12:15 a.m.
Smokeblwr is just being silly. S/he isn't serious.
KMHall
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 9:52 p.m.
Please start using your own name when you comment, smokeblwr. Man-up.
Ricebrnr
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 8:53 p.m.
Sarcasm or satire, either way FAIL
jns131
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 8:29 p.m.
They do it in Detroit so why not here? As for open carry? Everything is out in the open. Nothing scary about that.
a2xarob
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 7:39 p.m.
Protection? What would the open carriers be protecting themselves against? School age kids with paint?? Please tell us you were using sarcasm to emphasize how ridiculous the notion of citizens walking around with guns at the ready is!
Davidian
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 7 p.m.
I hope this is a joke - because anyone that shoots some kids for spraypainting is missing some screws.
Enso
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 6:45 p.m.
lol that's ridiculous. you can't shoot people for spray painting.
JRW
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 5:49 p.m.
Cameras. We need more security cameras around A2. Let's hope the 2 current alleged graffiti criminals get some real consequences. Otherwise this criminal and destructive activity will continue in A2. Where are the commenters who think this is art? It's not. It's vandalism.
Cathy
Sun, Jun 3, 2012 : 1:05 p.m.
Jon Saalberg: JRW recommends security cameras. You chastise him for assuming guilt, yet nowhere does he accuse anyone of anything.
Kitty O'Brien
Sun, Jun 3, 2012 : 9:17 a.m.
Perhaps move to a country like Singapore... where taggers are caned for their offenses.
Jon Saalberg
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 3:21 a.m.
As I commented on another comment - people are innocent until proven guilty - if you have a problem with that, you should move to a country where they have a different form of justice that makes you happy.
Goober
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 5:32 p.m.
I can hear it now. Some will claim we need more police or boots on the ground. My opinion. Let's assume for the time being that an adult or adults did not do this. That it was done by school age kids. Why are parents allowing their school age kids out at night instead of keeping an eye on them? Again, this is a society issue that can only be solved collectively by all adults, parents and citizens. More police or boots on the ground will not solve this problem of a lack of respect for others property.
Myles
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 8:10 p.m.
Or, this will be funny, the parents might be afraid of their teenagers. But we can't just assume that it's just teenagers even though teenagers are more than likely the main cause of graffiti. We have to be open to look at almost any age group of people.
CincoDeMayo
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 7:31 p.m.
Or the parents do not know the kids are out at night. Even if they want to stay up to make sure that their kids are not sneaking out at night, if they are working long hours, they may not have that stamina to stay awake. Even kids of good parents do stupid things. Ideally, all kids would listen to the responsible adults in their lives, and behave accordingly.
Unusual Suspect
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 6:17 p.m.
"Some parents cannot control their teenagers. They are out at night on their own." If teenagers are out on at night on their own then I'd say the parents are choosing not to control them.
Goober
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 6:03 p.m.
Yes, kids with negligent parents dumped on society to catch, correct and control. Not the way I was raised, nor most of my friends and associates.
JRW
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 5:51 p.m.
Some parents cannot control their teenagers. They are out at night on their own, and some parents don't just don't care, or are working in the evenings. That's a fact of life, unfortunately.
Steve in MI
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 5:42 p.m.
Really? It seems to me that arresting the individuals responsible and introducing them to the criminal justice system would be a VERY good step in deterring the vandals' behavior. My guess is that it would be more effective than just shaking our collective fist at "society" and (as you appear to presume) kids with negligent parents.
Unusual Suspect
Fri, Jun 1, 2012 : 5:30 p.m.
Not too far from the homes of two known graffiti criminals.
Jon Saalberg
Sat, Jun 2, 2012 : 3:18 a.m.
Uh, maybe in your universe, people are guilty until proven innocent, but that is not how it works in the real world.