Graffiti vandals defy police
Graffiti vandals continue to flaunt their work on Facebook more than a year after police vowed to track them down.
The West Australian revealed in May last year that graffiti vandals were using Facebook pages to share their work and discuss targets, often identifying themselves and the location of the graffiti.
The pages featured graffiti attacks on homes, businesses, schools, billboards, trains and even police cars.
The most active page, Perth Graffiti, had about 3700 members.
At the time, Commander Fred Gere said police would use the pages "to identify the people criminally responsible".
Perth Graffiti now has nearly 10,500 members and photos of graffiti are being posted at a rate of more than one a day.
There are dozens of albums named by location, including Padbury shops, Claremont Showground, Cyril Jackson High School, Spearwood, Balcatta walls, Perth trains and Perth bus station.
Many of the vandals are easily identifiable and clicking to their personal Facebook pages often reveals more incriminating evidence.
One Bunbury member of Perth Graffiti posted a photo of his young son tagging a wall with the caption: "Start em young spray s...."
Perth Writers Bench has about 3300 subscribers, compared with less than 2900 in May last year.
During a discussion about one graffiti vandal, a member argued he could not be considered the best because some of his work was legal.
"If anything, COLA,SUSK,PEDO,FEDUP,STARK,SULK are the best writers in perth . . . bomb bomb bomb, getup getup getup," he said.
"No doubt his a sick artist I give him mad respect for that, but graffiti is supposed to be an illegal act, not legal."
Other graffiti Facebook pages include South Perth Graffiti, which was established in November.
The page's description says: "Graffiti pictures from artists and crews/gangs south of the river."
Despite the escalation in exhibitionism, police would not say whether they had investigated any of the pages. Asked if they had tried to identify or contact anyone associated with the pages, police declined to comment.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Goodbye Graffiti hotline on 1800 44 22 55.
