From the AAR daily digest:

Officials in Los Angeles are planning a major crackdown on "freight writers" -- graffiti artists who target freight cars -- using tactics first developed to tackle gang violence. Under the plan, injunctions would be issued barring graffiti artists from associating with one another, allowing taggers to be arrested even if they aren't caught in the act of vandalizing railroad cars. "If you want to tag, be prepared to go to jail," says City Attorney Carmen Trutanich.

My first though would be to save the taxpayers money of jailing them, and just shoot 'em on sight. Biggest percentage of taggers are gang bangers, useless to society, so why put up with them! But, the anti-gun activists might cry foul. Sooooo....strip 'em down, and spray paint them with their own paint. Poetic justice I say...LOL!

Amen to that! It costs us on average about $1,000/per car to remove grafitti from one of our tank cars or covered hoppers. I get mad every time one of the shops sends me an estimate to remove grafitti as it is a complete waste of the companies money to have to do this.

I've heard this all before. They'll catch and release several of them, fine one or two some piddlin amount, then forget about it all within 3 weeks and it'll go right back to "normal".

Wyhog

How about the tagger untag the car?

It seems like it should be going out of fashion. I remenber "TAKI 183" doing the New York subway cars in 1969 or so. Can we make it look like you're your grandfather if you tag a train?

They got one!

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 74-year-old man said to be the oldest graffiti vandal ever captured in Los Angeles County was arrested Friday, authorities said. Deputies spotted the septuagenarian John Scott putting stickers on a stairwell at a downtown Metro Center subway station. The black-and-orange bumper stickers ask, "Who is John Scott?" and have been seen stuck on buses in Baldwin Hills and areas on the Westside of the city.

Stickers used in such a way are referred to as "slap tags" by those in the law enforcement community. They can be adhered to public property in a second or two but are difficult to remove.

Scott faces at least one felony vandalism charge when he is arraigned Monday. Deputies did not immediately know if he'd retained an attorney.

Ruble said the oldest suspect they'd previously arrested for such vandalism was 36.

"We knew our guy was older, but not 74," Ruble said.

Ruble said deputies believe Scott was driven to vandalize buses by the same motivation as younger people that spray graffiti or deface public property: "fame and notoriety."

"It just goes to show, the graffiti culture in Los Angeles is not age-specific and is very diverse," Ruble said.

Scott runs a Web site through which baseball caps and other items displaying his message are for sale.

He refers to himself as a "world traveler, entrepreneur, producer, but, above all, mystery ... the face in the window, the voice on the bus."