Early yesterday morning vandals targeted Counterbalance Park in lower Queen Anne, tagging both concrete park walls with bold, red graffiti. Though half of the vandalism has since been removed and the remainder is expected to be cleaned off today, many readers have also noticed a string of new tags around the neighborhood.
Reader Sarah Monley snapped a picture of this tag, which seems to match the one sprawled over Counterbalance Park yesterday, at 419 Queen Anne Ave N while walking home from work yesterday afternoon.
“Looks like BTM was busy last night,” she wrote.
I came across a series of similar tags this morning on walls and sidewalk halfway up the hill on both Queen Anne Avenue and 1st Ave W between Aloha and Prospect. One also had the letters “BTM” in it.
One reader commented on yesterday’s story, wondering if posting pictures of tags may encourage the behavior. SPG wrote,
Although it’s nice to know what’s going on, do we really need to have the actual tags written up in the article? It would be much better if the story just showed a part of the tag without showing the whole thing. That way the tagger who is looking for attention doesn’t get it and the community is still served with accurate news reporting. The best deterrent to tagging is to remove the tag immediately so that the tagger gets no recognition or credit for their effort. If every tag disappeared within a day there would be little incentive to keep tagging. By running a photo of the full tag the tagger gets even more credit for their vandalism and more incentive to do it again even after the actual tag is scrubbed off.
Though we will not post every picture of graffiti on the hill, we will continue to report on tags around the neighborhood and will be keeping a record of where tags are spotted and what each looks like in order to raise community awareness and help prevent future acts of vandalism. If you notice more vandalism around the neighborhood, please note the location in the comments below or email details and pictures to tips@queenanneview.com.