Portland has a major graffiti problem. Police are doing their best to identify and arrest taggers across the city. In January, a grand jury indicted Jerry Mijangos on eight counts of criminal mischief related to tagging, (“1 of Portland’s ‘most prolific graffiti’ suspects arrested, indicted, police say,” Feb. 22). Mijangos has a history of tagging arrests and is suspected of being responsible for hundreds of criminal tags in the past two and a half years.
In 2022, police arrested Emile Laurent who was originally charged with dozens of counts of criminal mischief. He was tied to at least $20,000 of graffiti damage and took a plea deal resulting in three years of probation, (“‘Prolific graffiti vandal’ takes plea deal, avoids jail time for Portland tagging,” June 10).
The goal is to cause deterrence. However, the consequences do not fit the crime. Arrests, sentencing, a plea deal and probation put the offender right back on the street to continue tagging. Stiffer consequences with clearly defined criteria should include jail time. The criteria could include the frequency of incidents, the number of times arrested, the amount of damage caused or other things that are measurable. Ultimately, arrests, probation and release will not solve the graffiti problem. Stiffer penalties must be considered.
Tom Kelley, Portland
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