More Graffiti = More Killings?

You never know:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday defended his decision to cut his predecessor’s popular graffiti blasters program — and dramatically alter the city’s plan of attack — despite a slowdown that has so frustrated one alderman, he’s using his expense allowance to remove it.

  “When we did graffiti [removal] the old way, we’d go into a neighborhood, do one wall, walk away and the rest of the neighborhood would still have graffiti,” the mayor said.

  “Now, it’s the entire community and any community that’s had it since we did the blitz changes it …. So, while you’re calling it lag time, I see an entire neighborhood clean — not just one wall in a neighborhood. It’s a different strategy.”

But on the other side of the coin, leaving gang graffiti up (disregarding simple taggers), especially in disputed or enemy territory, leads to increased confrontation, retaliatory tagging, then someone comes along with a gun and ::BLAM BLAM:: more headlines in the papers, more stories on the news, and more humor from SCC pointing out the failure of politicians and police bosses to wish they were back in Kansas....or New Jersey.

It's an interesting theory at least - leaving this stuff up for more than a day might very well contribute to increased shootings and homicides.