West Seattle Crime Prevention Council Addresses Gang Activity

The West Seattle Crime Prevention Council, which addresses safety issues throughout the West Seattle area, is meeting on April 16th to conduct an assessment of gang activity in the West Seattle area. These meetings are open to everyone and are held every month except for July, August and December. Gang activity in the Northwest has been increasing since the late 1970's and early 1980's, and even gangs from the east have been showing up in communities throughout the Northwest.

Seattle gangs are very transient and are often allied with other gangs. Therefore, it is hard to place gangs in certain territories because they are constantly moving around. This upcoming meeting is going to discuss graffiti crimes, including the reporting of graffiti, how to identify gang graffiti, the prosecution of graffiti crimes, ways to deter graffiti, and how graffiti is often correlated with more serious crimes. Graffiti may seem like a harmless crime, but some experts say that there is a direct correlation between graffiti and serious crime. These experts claim that when graffiti is significantly reduced in a community, there is also a considerable reduction in violent and gang crime as well.

In the past, some individuals who are arrested for graffiti are also linked to arson, theft, break and enter, assaults, drugs and weapons and even murder. Graffiti writers are also often members of formal street gangs. As a result, police departments and other law enforcement agencies have been known to pursue individuals suspected of graffiti in and around Seattle.

Graffiti is commonly considered to be a malicious mischief crime in the 3rd degree. This is defined as knowingly and maliciously causing physical damage to someone else's property where the damage is less than $250. Therefore, if the graffiti damage is less than $250, it will be considered a gross misdemeanor with a potential sentence of 90 days to 1 year in jail, and fines up to $5,000. If you have been arrested for this crime or any other offense, please do not hesitate to call a Seattle criminal attorney at our firm for tough criminal defense and protection against the penalties of a conviction!