Asheville police rack up arrests of graffiti artists

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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I love artful graffiti, but even I will agree that the tagging has gotten out of hand lately. All the spray painting downtown has started to make downtown look crummy. 

Asheville City Council and the Asheville Police Department have taken notice, and they’ve been cracking down. Here’s part of an APD press release out today:

ASHEVILLE – Asheville police arrested two people over the past weekend for multiple, separate incidents of graffiti related vandalism.   One person was charged with spray-painting graffiti under the Smoky Park Bridge, and five additional subjects were subsequently charged with second-degree trespass and having open containers of alcohol in that incident.  These arrests are the latest in a series of APD graffiti arrests in 2008. Since Jan. 1, APD has logged 307 cases of graffiti vandalism in the city. This number is believed to represent less than half of all actual graffiti incidents, since many victims don’t report the damage to their property.   APD officers have conducted more than 50 surveillance operations and logged more than 500 hours of investigative time into arresting individual graffiti vandals/taggers in an effort to combat property damage that costs the city and individual property owners hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.