Yet another spate of graffiti around the lake must be distressing to the caretakers of public places and any individual property owners who are the victims. The Courier has learnt there are places in these precincts where council workers return on a regular even daily basis for the purpose of cleaning up this ugly mess. Full credit to the hard work of these council teams and the end result of restoring some of the civic pride graffiti has that corrosive capacity to undo.

But whether it is Lake Gardens or the lake precinct itself these incidents may be random but they are not infrequent.   It is clear despite the best intentions of police that punitive control is not likely to prove a long term solution especially when police resources are warranted in areas of more serious public risk.  Graffiti may be a minor crime but collectively it has an enormous impact on the look and feel of a city as well as the feelings of its residents.

The debate about legal graffiti spaces will go on, as will the endless discussion between what qualifies as street art and what is meaningless scribble expectorated by the questionably literate but none of this will avail a solution or eliminate these unnecessary costs unless we find the motive.

Graffiti rightly inspires the ire of normal residents. Its apparent futility of purpose and complete absence of any thought makes most people despairingly dismiss the question of motive as its perpetrators seem beyond that. We have certainly countenanced the dangers of over-thinking such stupidity before but to simply push police surveillance and punishment as solutions is costly and reactive. After all if it is excitement the perpetrators pursue, increased police presence could make it all the more thrilling. Better the community takes an active role in this.

Punishment as a deterrent will fail to work if we hope the criminals will stop and think about the consequences. As these are not delinquents who stop to think; shame might help.  Punishment, at least at an individual level, may work if perpetrators can sufficiently see the consequences of their work. What could be better than strictly supervised community work orders, when caught, to make them join or be directed by council teams to clean up the mess they or others have created?