L.A. city attorney seeks injunction against 'MTA' tagging crew

City prosecutors filed for a civil court injunction Wednesday to stop the activities of the Metro Transit Assassins tagging crew known for a massive, quarter-mile-long graffiti "bomb" of its acronym along the Los Angeles River.

The injunction, which names 10 members of the crew, would be the first of its kind in that it specifically targets a group of graffiti vandals, according to the Los Angeles city attorney's office.

Unlike many "turf-based" anti-gang injunctions that create "safety zones" by limiting the activities of street gangs from operating in a particular area or associating with one another, the injunction against the Metro Transit Assassins, or MTA, would impose a broad list of prohibitions against the crew.

The court order being sought by city prosecutors would bar members from associating with each other, institute a mandatory 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew and prevent members from possessing "graffiti tools or weapons."

The civil suit is scheduled to be heard Aug. 31. It seeks $250,000 in civil penalties and $3.7 million in damages for what the city attorney's office described as 500 documented incidents of graffiti vandalism associated with MTA.

Part of the damage was the massive MTA moniker that stretched the equivalent of several city blocks on the west bank of the Los Angeles River. At one point, the river was one of the largest open-air tagging canvases in the region, with thousands of graffiti tags covering its concrete banks.

The MTA "bomb" was removed last October as part of a $1.3 million graffiti abatement program by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. As one of the largest tags in the United States, its three block letters covered a three-story-high wall and ran between the 4th Street and 1st Street bridges. It could be seen from the air.

In seeking the injunction, city prosecutors filed a criminal complaint that includes 52 witnesses and 101 photographs and documents damage to highway signs, highway sound walls, billboards, bridges, buses, passenger trains, freight train cars, trucks, homes and numerous commercial buildings.

The city attorney's office cited figures from the office of community beautification estimating that the city spends more than $7 million a year on graffiti abatement and other cleanup costs related to graffiti vandalism.  

-- Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Removal of the "MTA" tag last October from along the L.A. River. Photo: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[gm]

Please stop with the injunctions. They are unconstitutional.

[john hough]

CAMERAS,.PUT UP CAMERAS.!!.CATCH THE LITTLE SUCKERS!!

[Fluff]

Ummm. Just exactly how would this be enforced? There is no way for a police officer to know who is or is not a member of such a crew. I doubt that after being served with the requisite court order, a tagger is going to tell a police officer, "Officer, you have no way of knowing this, but I'm a tagger who has been served with the injunction. You should also know that because of this injunction I can be arrested because I have a pen in my pocket." I suppose there would be those circumstances when they are caught in act and this would be a supplemental charge and thereby increase the punishment.

How bout the City Attorney simply pursue the something remotely close the prescribed penalty for the crime in the first place.

Even if the above scenario were to occur, I doubt the police officer would really be informed to to know what exactly to do at that point. Perhaps the tagger could inform him/her.

[DeWayne Stark]

Graffitti along the river bed is just plain ugly and it is not just there is seems to be all over. This Monday I was walking through the new 22nd Street Park in San Pedro where 7,000,000 was spent to create the park. The tagging is ugly and it is being done on new benches and new signs. That area is patrolled by the DOD, the Harbor Police, LAPD, LASD, HLS yet it not safe from taggers.

[Ray]

They're vandals, not a crew.
Make them pay for the mess.

[George Soros]

Stop the nonsense!

It's very easy getting rid of graffiti since the vaste majority are repeat offenders; Simply institute a 'one strike you are out' rule which means that if you're caught, cut the the arms off. In public.

Once you have a bunch of arm-less animals walking around the city, other people will think twice before they consider defaming public and/or private property.

And if that doesn't help, just cut their heads off. End of story.

Next...

[Duped Tax Payer]

Just call these guys a bunch of terrorist.

[syscom3]

How about putting them in chains and forcing them to clean their mess up, for as long as it takes?

[kristin]

Make the taggers pay for repairing the damage they have done. That will stop them very quickly.

[The Bell]

What a load. Injunction this broad means the authorities have failed at their job by constitutional means and if they won't quit should be themselves indicted.

[Paul]

Go Nuch! Put these tagging thugs in jail with other criminals, where they belong.

[Fred]

I am fed up with the weak approaches to this problem and spending huge amounts of tax dollars on these criminals.

There is no problem with tagging in Singapore (lashing and severe jail time)

[JR]

Unconstitutional? Based on what? 1st Amendment? Don't be a fool. It's vandalism, pure and simple. Umm, Fluff, there are lots of ways to easily identify members (they've already been identified and logged in the system). It would be nice if these individuals would actually do something productive with their 'free' time, like volunteer and help the community, instead of taking and taking.

[John L Mendez]

Plse keep submitting the injunctions. They totally constitutional.

America needs to enforce laws against taggers.

Saudi Arabia cuts their hands off.

[J Swift]

Give up the gestapo tactics, and create an area for the artform to express itself. There are many examples of this working out for the "taggers" and the community as well. Incorporate this segment of civilians to the community and watch the illegal graffiti greatly reduced

[prolgazinternet]

Are circus lawsuits the only remedy? Instead of spending millions for lawsuits and for cleanup work, why not pay rewards for photographing and informing on the vandals? Then the convicted vandals could spend the rest of their lives working off the fines and damages. There are a lot of unemployed people out there who would be happy to accept jobs as security guards. Building owners would likely hire security guards as opposed to constantly paying fines for failure to clean up the graffiti on their buildings.

[Jeff Smith]

@Fluff - "The injunction, which names 10 members of the crew," They already know 10 members according to the article. They are just making it legal to impose certain laws agaisnt these idiots.

@gm - You are probably one of these idiots. How is it not constitutional? I suppose you think Jail is not constitutional as well? How do you suggest they deal with these vandals? Tell you what...I'll come to your house and paint your car or house all kinds of nasty colors and see how you like it. Los Angeles already gets a bad wrap for being dangerous....why not try and make it look good so people don't feel threatened when they take walks?

The city used to offer citizens good money to catch these idiots. You were given cash to apprehend and call police to pick them up. I think we should institute that program again.

[Lakers Fan 2010]

How about those drug selling, children murdering, violent gangs in L.A.? Nah, let's go after petty graffiti vandals. Moronic pigs. The ''massive MTA moniker" looks waaaay better than a bunch of plain concrete, get over it.

[Steve G]

As a New Yorker who sees this ugliness every day, I say cut their thumbs off and sue them and their parents (if minors) for all the cleanup costs plus damages.

[the truth]

This article is misleading and leaves out many of the facts about this case.

The main fact left out is that members of this tagging crew turned police informant in the past. Testifying and making statements against rival tagging crews. Making deals with the LAPD is how they got on the radar, long before they painted that enormous piece in the river bed. The piece in the river bed was just the straw that broke the rats back, and caused their houses to get raided.

But how did the LAPD know their names and where they lived? Because members of the tagging crew told on each other as well.

This article and the prosecutors are trying to make a big deal out of this bust and subsequent injunction. When in reality this was an easy easy takedown of a not-so-notorious bunch of people. And the 10 people in the injunction are not even the elders of the crew, but only the people that were dumb enough to get caught with evidence at their residence.

This is all hype made to make the city attorney look like he is cleaning up.

[jake]

fluff,
Obviously the current penalties are not stiff enough. Injunctions work. They work against gangs so why not try them against vandals. And the police know who these little cowards are. Injunctions are tools not the "end all". The way to make them stop is eliminate them from society via jail or extermination. Only productive citizens should live among us. NOT THESE COWARDS.

[THIS IS BS]

@GM..yes they sure are....at dewayne this article is speaking of one of the bigger crews from LA,that is very well known around the world,not some 12 year old tagger in the harbor area...history repeats itself,and throught history NO ONE recognized artists for their art while they were alive,wake up n smell the coffee,as if a CONCRETE RIVER has any beauty to it....most of u so called graffiti haters,would buy the $#!^ up as soon as u see it in a gallery, to put over ur fire mantle!

THE PRIME SUSPECT

[ColeslawPatriot]

We need less judicial injunctions and more old fashioned policing. Shoot first, ask questions later and this trouble will be resolved.

[zOnk.oNe]

Tagging isn't going anywhere. Po' folks need a place for the creative outlet...might as well legalize places like the riverbed and other bland city surfaces. I'd rather see color and artwork than 'city grey'.

[tk]

I find is disgusting that the city and its people people have no problem wasting tax payers money on what may be a work of art, yet will continually allow new posters, electronic billboards and advertisements which are nothing more than accident causing eye-soars -- to be displayed through out the city.
Bit hypocritical aren't we? Is it because graffiti artist don't pay taxes on their works?
I would rather look at a beautiful and original creation of ART than some advertisement of the newest slop being pushed onto the market.