Recent appearances of graffiti on Biola’s campus have proven that even in a city that touts itself as one of the safest communities in LA County, La Mirada still has its share of trouble.
The most recent piece of graffiti on Biola’s campus was discovered last Sunday, Oct. 7, on the brick wall border between Hart Hall and Roma Drive. Spray painted on the wall was the symbol “SK13.”
Another incident was reported Oct. 4 on Rose Apartment, one of Biola’s off-campus apartments. There, a tagger used a marker to write “PBOK” on the southeast corner of the building.
According to Sgt. Judy Anderson of the La Mirada Sheriff’s office, these symbols don’t represent any type of real threat to Biola or the La Mirada community.
“These are tagger crews; not what we call ‘gangs’,” said Anderson.
She said that a lot of tagging is done as a type of initiation for new members of these type of groups.
Jerry Powell, chief of Campus Safety, similarly dismissed the possibility of real gang danger. Relating to his past experience as an LAPD officer, he said that the graffiti is likely not a sign of gang territory wars, such as might be seen when one gang crosses out another gang’s symbol.
“I don’t think it’s a type of gang identification,” said Powell. “We don’t see any imminent threat.”
Powell also pointed out that Biola is often tagged the same time other locations in the area are tagged, minimizing the idea that Biola is being specifically targeted.
Campus Safety crime records indicate that an average of six cases of vandalism are reported each month on Biola’s campus. Of these cases, many of them are minor and could be as small as a grease pen marking, said Powell.
Powell also says that because instances of vandalism decrease in the summer, when most students are off-campus, the threat of gangs is relatively low to Biola. He says, rather, that the vandals are probably just looking for an “audience.”
“If we had a systemic gang problem we’d see [graffiti] every day,” said Powell.
Mason Wren, a transfer student, said he has yet to see any graffiti on-campus. He did say, however, that he thinks that vandalism on campus is an issue that shouldn’t be ignored.
Freshman Makenzie Mulligan, on the other hand, has seen graffiti around campus, specifically some he saw on the café wall.
“I think it’s just stupid. They’re excited or just trying to be punks,” Mulligan said about the increase of campus graffiti while students are on-campus.
Sgt. Anderson said that graffiti does occur on a weekly basis around La Mirada, but did not suggest it was a large problem. She mentioned, however, that it is not completely ignored.
“We usually get it cleaned up right away,” Anderson said. “If we can locate the person who did it, of course, we’re going to seek prosecution.”
