A business owner is calling for tougher action after a suspected prolific San Francisco graffiti vandal who is believed to be behind the “Goer” tags on storefronts and walls across Downtown neighborhoods landed in jail again on Friday.
Brian Wabl, 41, of San Francisco, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of graffiti-related crimes. Wabl was still in jail as of Friday afternoon on $41,000 bail, according to official records.
Adam Mesnick, owner of the Deli Board in SoMa, who took a video showing Wabl’s initial arrest, was shocked to hear he had been booked in jail again.
“C’mon,” Mesnick said, who goes by @BetterSoma on X. “Back at it, huh?”
Mesnick said there should be harsher consequences for Wabl after another arrest for graffiti-related offenses.
San Francisco jail records show Wabl was booked on suspicion of possessing graffiti tools and felony vandalism. He remains in jail as of Friday morning.
Wabl was previously charged with felony vandalism after being arrested on Oct. 16 after a witness told officers to stop him on Howard Street in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood.
Wabl tagged the word “Goer” on a Howard Street business between Seventh and Eighth streets on Oct. 15, prosecutors allege. Wabl pleaded not guilty to that charge on Oct. 18.
It’s unclear what “Goer” means, if anything, but in British slang, the derogatory term is used to describe a woman who is sexually active with many different partners.
An Instagram account linked to someone named Brian Wabl includes references to a dog called Goer.
‘The Kingpin’
“The assumption is that it’s multiple people doing the tag, but hopefully, they got the guy who’s the kingpin,” Mesnick previously told The Standard. “It is the most frequent sign, prominent, prolific. For years, we’ve been cleaning up after this guy, years upon years.”
The tagger left a different mark in late September, branding “Goer” into Bay of Burma’s storefront window signage on Folsom Street—a block from where Wabl was arrested in October.
Wabl was scheduled to appear in court on Friday morning.
The San Francisco Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office were contacted for comment.