Earlier, KTRK-13’s Deborah Wrigley reported that graffiti vandals tagged HPD’s Montrose substation and police cars:
The graffiti fight turned very personal for police officers Thursday night. Vandals targeted among other things, an HPD storefront and police cars. Now, the department is vowing not to get mad, but just get those responsible arrested.
It happened at the Neartown police storefront on Westheimer near Montrose. It was tagged with illegible writing and symbols. Two police cars were marked up as well.
[snip]
“We saw them when they were running away and we ran behind them,” said Rouge Restaurant Chef Aldo El-Sharif. “They were too fast for us.”
Overnight though, there was no thrill of the chase. No one was at the police storefront. It’s no longer open around the clock. Sia Ravari donated the building for use as a place for patrol officers to work out of.
“We’re short on police right now and they close at night, so that’s what happened,” he told us.
MayorWhiteChiefHurtt’s press shop can spin Houston’s surging crime any way they want, but it’s not hard for the average person on the street to figure out there’s a crime problem when police substations and vehicles are vandalized with impunity, despite the best crimefighting efforts of… a chef, and only a chef.
KHOU-11’s Doug Miller reports that HPD quickly cleaned up the mess, putting the effort well under the ten days allowed by the new graffiti ordinance. That’s actually pretty impressive. I gave up trying to get the city to come and remove graffiti from several Midtown traffic signals earlier this year after several months of complaints to 311 and elsewhere, and finally painted over them myself. It’s good to know that some graffiti vandalism will embarrass the city into cleanup.
As one of our commenters points out, the local Hearst daily didn’t actually bother to report this story. Perhaps the new city desk editor wasn’t watching his television and that one got by him?
UPDATE: The Chronicle finally covered the incident.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times.
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