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City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez plans to propose new criminal penalties for graffiti on public property, in part to discourage taggers from taking up spray cans during any unrest after the November election.
The proposed ordinance, which must be approved by the City Council, would create a new class A misdemeanor offense carrying a minimum sentence of seven days in jail and 50 hours of alternative community service, during which convicted taggers would clean up graffiti.
Gonzalez, a candidate for Portland mayor, plans to introduce the new penalties at a council meeting on Sept. 25. His move comes less than two months before an election that has many Portlanders eyeing solutions to crime and blight. Gonzalez has staked out a law-and-order position relative to his opponents by calling for tougher laws on public camping and drug use.
“Vandalism has eroded Portland’s beauty,” Gonzalez told WW in an email. “From graffiti on street signs to broken windows downtown during riots, it has left deep scars on the city’s sense of self.”
Gonzalez said he and his staff have been looking for ways to give Portlanders “visible signs of progress and prepare for any civil unrest scenarios surrounding the election.”
Beyond any election-related spike in spray painting, Portland needs the new penalties because judges fail to impose “real ramifications on vandals,” Gonzalez said. Judges don’t sentence, so district attorneys don’t prosecute, so police don’t arrest, Gonzalez said in a description of the plan.
If passed, the ordinance wouldn’t apply to private property, Gonzalez chief of staff Shah Smith said. But it would apply to building façades where the property line meets the public right of way. It also applies to street signs, transit stops and any other public infrastructure.
The minimum sentences wouldn’t apply to minors.
The Portland Police Bureau has arrested some high-profile taggers lately, largely through the work of two officers who carve out time to investigate graffiti, Nate Kirby-Glatkowski and Amelia Flohr. In March, a grand jury indicted Aiden Saul, then 22, on 23 charges for spraying his tag, GEOMETRO, on buildings, bridges and fences around Portland. Each charge was for a particular tag.