By Dustin Brown
In the lexicon of the average Middle Villager, fires will “burn” and dogs may “bite,” while “throwing up” is best reserved for the privacy of a porcelain throne.
But those terms and others assumed more sinister meanings at last Thursday's Juniper Park Civic Association meeting, where Police Officer Frank Vazquez gave a lesson in vandalism vocabulary as he trained residents to battle graffiti.
To “bite” is to copy another vandal's style and to “burn” is to beat the competition. “Throwing up” means you rapidly scrawl your “tag,” or signature, and “buffing” is erasing, removing or altering another vandal's graffiti.
If the civic leaders have their way, however, those alternate meanings will fade from memory along with the graffiti they have pledged to eliminate from the community.
“We have to adopt a policy of zero tolerance,” said Lorraine Sciulli, an officer with the civic who conducted the meeting. Robert Holden, the civic's president, was away on vacation and did not attend. “As soon as you get it on any wall, within 24 hours you have to get it off,” Sciulli said.
The civic has declared war on graffiti, and the first battle is scheduled for May 3, when the group is organizing a community clean-up day with the help of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Graffiti Free NYC program.
The renewed fight comes in response to the perceived increase in graffiti on walls in the 104th Precinct, which covers Middle Village, Maspeth, Glendale and Ridgewood.
“There's no question in my mind that graffiti is on the rise, particularly in the 104th Precinct,” said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, the first speaker at last Thursday's meeting.
Vazquez, part of the graffiti unit for Patrol Borough Queens North, characterized graffiti vandalism as a stepping stone to other offenses.
“Graffiti vandals, they graduate to do other crimes,” he said.
Vazquez said positive depictions of graffiti in the media – such as a beverage called “Graffi-Tea,” student notepads with graffiti designs on the cover, and even murals painted on the sides of schools – ultimately promote vandalism and should be discouraged.
Bob Doocey, a coordinator of the civic's graffiti war, said residents can get involved by participating in the May 3 cleanup or by agreeing to adopt a block – keeping an eye on an area, reporting graffiti and cleaning it as soon as it occurs.
Volunteers equipped with supplies provided by the city will remove graffiti from the surfaces on any buildings whose owners have signed a release to allow the cleanup. The releases can be returned to the mayor's Community Assistance Unit by fax at 212-788-7819.
City Councilman Dennis Gallagher (R-Middle Village) announced two proposed pieces of legislation he hopes will help curb graffiti by creating additional penalties for vandals.
The first bill would allow city judges to revoke the driver's license of anyone caught doing graffiti, a penalty Gallagher expects would act as a strong deterrent for teenage vandals.
The second would allow the names of minors arrested for graffiti crimes to be released to the public; under current laws, they are considered minors and protected from media exposure, he said.
“If they want the glory of having their tag up there,” Gallagher said, “maybe they should get the embarrassment when they get caught.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
