George Collins, a videographer who lives in south Santa Ana, and who ran for Mayor last year, was on the scene yesterday when graffiti was discovered on two walls in his area – but this was not normal tagging. The words that were painted onto those walls constituted a threat to the life of our new Governor, Jerry Brown.
Why target Brown? Who knows? He has been fairly moderate so far and has mostly made headlines for announcing that he is slashing public library funds and going after redevelopment and free enterprise zone funding.
Brown appeared here locally, at the Santa Ana Zoo, at last year’s O.C. Labor Day event. He is a close friend of Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido and Brown has actually stayed over at Pulido’s house while in town. Pulido told me last year that he met with Brown several times to assist with Brown’s campaign.
The first one happened around Greenville Street just north of Alton Street, according to the OC Weekly, which also reported that the other graffiti threat appeared near Thornton Park.
Collins appears in the video above, which I am providing courtesy of ABC News. They interviewed Collins and were able to video the graffiti before City of Santa Ana public works crews quickly painted it over.
Collins noted on his Facebook page that the graffiti was covered up by 9:30 am. He credited the City of Santa Ana for acting quickly to get rid of these hateful messages.
Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, of the SAPD, talked to ABC News and he brought up what happened recently in Tucson – and he noted that there have been other hateful graffiti messages in town recently – those messages have targeted gays, Catholics, Mexicans, African Americans and Asians. He also referenced that other cities in Orange County have been dealing with the same problem.
ABC News cited at least eight such incidents, in four cities here in Orange County. Many of these messages have included spelling errors. I have noted over the years that right-wing anonymous commenters on local blogs often misspell words.
The targeted cities have included Brea, Anaheim, and Irvine. Police in those cities are working together to identify if the taggers are the same person or are otherwise in cahoots with each other.
One teenager I know who lives near the area targeted yesterday told me in a text message that there is a known skinhead who lives in that area. Young people in Santa Ana expressed fear yesterday, on Facebook.
These are indeed scary times. Hate is commonplace on local blogs in particular. This is one of the reasons I suggested yesterday that we need to scan those who attend our local City Council meetings for weapons. There are just too many unhinged people here in town and we need to take steps to ensure public safety.
And the local Republican Party is part of the problem. Minuteman Lupe Moreno got appointed this Monday to the OC GOP Central Committee, as I related in a post yesterday. So did failed Santa Ana Mayoral candidate Charles Hart. Moreno is well known for her hateful views targeting Mexicans and gays. Hart however is not much better. He pined during his campaign for the “good old days,” presumably when it was okay for city leaders to burn down Santa Ana’s Chinatown and segregate schools to keep Mexicans and African Americans away from white children.
Another major problem has been the behavior of failed Santa Ana Mayoral candidate Alfredo Amezcua, who has been railing against the Santa Ana City Council and who has recruited a Who’s Who of bitter, angry folks to his coalition of people who mostly don’t live in Santa Ana. Their attacks on our City Council and our Mayor have been little more than innuendo and slander – contrast that behavior with that of the aforementioned George Collins, who recently met with Mayor Miguel Pulido to discuss concerns about the Harbor transit corridor and who continues to do good work in our community. Collins is a shining example of how politicians should act when they lose an election.
Kudos to our public works department for their quick response to this despicable act. The “Coalition of No” and the “Back Row Gang” would have us all believe that our city leaders and workers care nothing about graffiti removal.
I believe this hateful threat is yet another reason why the city should increase security at city meetings including the use of metal detectors as you enter.
What? this is so interesting. what an amazing opportunity. Mr Mill, I know that you probably don’t care for me all that much, but let’s work on this together. What do you think? what city staffer or rep. or whatever the title, can help us find some price estimates for additional security. We need two quotes. One for body scanners, or whatever technology at the city Hall, and one for security cameras in the Artist Village Parking Lot. It does not matter which one comes out to be more expensive, what matters is that the public is considered in these ideas, and given some truth. If you were able to facilitate this mission, then you would probably become my new Santa Ana hero. thanks.
The City claims that they are hiring yet one more security force to monitor that parking garage, I have not seen them yet but maybe we will. Anyways, that is not the issue here. The public deserves to know how much it would cost for two securty plans. 1, Body Scanners at City Hall 2) Visible Security Cameras and signs at the artist village parking lot. By the way, this is not my selfish peculiar hang up. This is what the business owners were asking for in the fall at the “emergency security meeting” that followed a murder in that parking garage.
mateo,
Why would you think that I “don’t care” for you? I have never met you and thus would have no such opinion. I usually judge folks for myself based on personal interaction and not on what others say or what is written on blogs.
I would be more than happy to have you join me in a discussion with whomever it takes to increase security measures at city hall and elsewhere. I don’t think we need full body scanners but we should look at something to increase security.
As far as security in the Artist Village goes I think that should be addressed as well. However I don’t think getting rid of the PBID and thus defunding Downtown Inc. will help us make things safer.
I am more than open to hearing your ideas. Perhaps Art can set something up.
Fair enough. I know that Art knows the both of us. He knows that I belong to an organization named A.V.A.S.A. and sometimes I speak on behalf of them and sometimes I speak just for myself. I’ll call Art and see when we can all casually talk. I’ll fish around to see what other people in the artists village might be interested. I don’t hold Downtown Inc. responsible for the parking garage security.
I use to remove the graffiti every morning from the palm trees, signs, and sidewalk.
Now, rarely do I need to remove graffiti.
If you remove it fast, before the sun has a chance to set it, it is not that hard to remove.
If you remove it fast, before the vandals get to show off their handy work, they give up and move to an easier spot.
Should the city enforce the code? fine the property owners for not keeping their places graffiti clear?
The City just renewed their contract with their graffiti cover-up vendor.
As I understand it, Downtown Inc. helps out with this in the Downtown area.
I do think it is important to take pictures of the graffiti before covering it up and send them to the SAPD, for their files.
Thanks Cook for making a difference and getting rid of the graffiti!
As for your question, yes, however sometimes the graffiti shows up so fast and so often that owners have a hard time covering it up. And sometimes taggers target vacancies, which is a difficult issue. Best to report that to the folks at City Hall.