Rival youths tag Veterans Hall on Monday, gang-style graffiti out of control in Fort Bragg, cops want help.

After we wrote about the tagging of Fort Bragg Veterans Hall hit on Sunday, the crew from the rival “gang” came, crossed out the images shown and placed their own offensive scribbling on a building dedicated to those who have served their country.

This is happening all over town to a degree not seen before and in many places I didn’t publicize. 

We can’t tolerate this, whether these are wannabe gang members or “real” gangsters.

On Monday Fort Bragg Police issued a press release about the explosion of graffiti.  Another is expected soon from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department. Just down the street from my home in Cleone, a tagger crew was caught on video and the county mounties arrived in force to investigate. More on this later..

Both the county and city of Fort Bragg cops are saying graffiti is wildly out of control right now. FBPD wants your help.

After the article was published, people sent us a dozen more locations tagged in the last week. Several of these locations were also retagged by the rival “gang.” 

Is this vandalism being done by gangs or youths pretending to be gangsters?  Kids often pretend to be involved with these scary criminal organizations known as the Sorenos and Nortenos, who go by the numbers 13 and 14 among many other names.   

Critics spoke out and said mendocinocoast.news publishing of these pictures gave wanna-bee brats the publicity and fear they hope for.  I do see their point. 

But this time, the vandalism is just too much to tolerate.

The graffiti in giant letters is a literal middle finger to the entire town. This sounds ridiculous as I write it, but I thought gangs would have more respect than to tag a veterans hall and church. It almost makes me think that these taggers are just doing whatever they feel like and only wish that Fort Bragg could be the big-time gang scene of LA. 

The sheriff’s department is investigating tagging that happened in Cleone and there be arrests. There have been at least 6 tags outside the city, likely more. I asked Fort Bragg Police Sgt Jonathan McLaughlin, who is in charge of the investigation of the tagging questions, to which he responded by email. His answers are in bold.

Any arrests?

There have been no arrests related to the graffiti to date. We have opened a community portal and are hoping someone has video or photo evidence that will assist us in identifying the suspects.

Do you have a count of how many tags have been made in the city over the past two weeks or so?

A quick look at the reports regarding tagging shows about 16 cases reported related to graffiti. Some of these of course are at the same location twice, because as you said, one group covered over the other groups graffiti.

 Do investigators think this is being done by local youths or a traveling tagger crew? 

Currently there is no strong evidence to say either way, but my suspicion is they are local.

 Why have they gone so crazy with it?  Any clues?

Unfortunately, it only takes one person to tag something. Then the “broken window theory” kicks in. It’s why we are so diligent with property owners in trying to get them to cover it or clean it up.

 (The broken window theory is basically that if cops let minor crimes go it just makes people bolder to commit more and bigger crimes).

Has this been accompanied by gang violence?  

At this point, there has been no gang violence that I am aware of related to the tagging.

Several readers asked me to translate what was written on the walls. It’s not the words of the prophets.

Cops have translators for what these gang signs are supposed to mean. But we have no proof who wrote the graffiti. Gangs? Punks? Some other kind of hater? And I have never trusted these “experts” on gangs. 

The FBPD press release authored by McLaughlin stated “Fort Bragg has experienced a notable increase in graffiti over the past few weeks. We need the community’s help and request if you live in an area impacted by graffiti, to please review any available surveillance footage you might have during the time the graffiti occurred.” The PD is requesting that people submit any suspicious activity via the online community portal. To utilize the portal, please visit the link below or utilize the attached quick-response code (QR Code). The portal will send a link by either text or email for the reporting party to upload the evidence and allow the person submitting to provide a brief statement about when and where the activity occurred. The portal also accepts anonymous submissions. Simply uncheck “provide my information” and your submission will remain anonymous. Submissions to the portal will be uploaded directly to evidence.com where police officers can review them.

Victims of graffiti are encouraged to take advantage of the city of Fort Bragg’s graffiti removal program. The program entitles graffiti victims to reimbursement for items utilized in the removal of graffiti up to a value of $75. To learn more about this please ask the officer taking your crime report for more information, police said. Anyone with information on these incidents are encouraged to contact the Fort Bragg Police Department at (707)964-0200 or utilize the anonymous tip line at (707)961-3049.

The top photo was submitted and the one below was taken by me. If you have more info to contribute, please e-mail me at frankhartzell@gmail.com. I’d like to get a variety of perspectives.

And before I forget!!!

•The Fort Bragg Food Bank needs plastic and paper bags. Please drop off what you have!  And don’t dump trash there!