It seems since the school closures early this year due to the pandemic, there has also been a pandemic of “tagging,” the defacing and defiling of public and private property in and around Durango, all because of a gaggle of bored teenage boys or young men believing they have a right to make Durango look like a big city slum.
For instance, their destructive, self-absorbed behavior has resulted in chain-link fencing closing off the Bakers Bridge area where, over many years, through the kindness of the property owners, we were once allowed to respectfully walk along the riverbanks and enjoy the solitude and the beauty of the area.
So how do we catch these vandals? They likely work at night to avoid detection. Citizen patrols? Privately funded nightly patrols? Must we invest in big city surveillance cameras to catch them?
The penalties should be expensive, maybe require some jail time.
If we can’t put an end to tagging, it could/will negatively impact our tourism industry if our city looks like it has been taken over by thugs. This must stop. Does anyone care?
David OhmanDurango
