SOS – graffiti prevention

Businesses are significantly disturbed by the presence of graffiti in their buildings. This is one of the reasons why police officers, fire department personnel and the officers responsible for the Graffiti Committee met together with RALI members for lunch last Tuesday. The goal of this meeting was to introduce measures to promote greater public security in Lachine.

Stéphane Huneault, a socio-community agent, explained that the public security programme consists of four aspects: prevention, awareness and animation, removal of graffiti and suppression; all of these aspects constitute the optimal solution. “For the youth especially, we prefer the opportunity to raise awareness and use other judicial measures instead of taking criminal action”, said David Pilote, a police officer who sits on the committee.

With a packed schedule filled with events and awareness programmes, the Graffti Committee and collaborators have seen a marked improvement since it was implemented in 2003. RALI coordinator Huguette Rivière explained the outcome of the removal of graffiti financed by the Borough: “Normally, after having cleaned their buildings for the sixth time, merchants notice that there is no longer any recurring activity on the part of the people leaving graffiti.”

“All of our interventions help in the long term, but already we’re seeing an enormous difference”, Mr. Uno added.

One concrete measure for the prevention of graffiti is to make legally available a wall for use by graffiti artists so they can display their creativity. Huguette Rivière is familiar with the phenomenon. According to her, it is important to maintain this space. “It allows the young people to express themselves and to show off their talent while avoiding being accused of vandalism on public buildings.” Programme activities also include a graffiti exhibit, drawing contests, awareness campaigns in both primary and secondary schools, sessions where young people can cover billboards with graffiti and graffiti workshops. “The activities bring our graffiti artists closer to us, providing us with the opportunity to interact directly with them”, Mr. Huneault pointed out.

Lynn Thibault, chief of the Social Division of Lachine Borough, said: “We encourage our young to develop their own signature, but to put it in the right place. We convey to them the idea that there are career possibilities relating to graffiti such as graphic design and cartoon / comic creation.”

Mrs. Thibault also said that the workers who deal with the young people were introduced to this particular milieu but have since finished their training. “We lead by example instead of giving them a moral speech.”