Community Conversations

Public Vandalism

A position paper by Dr. Deland S. Anderson regarding Community Conversations held at the Pratt Museum on 9 November 2001.

More than 60 people convened at the Pratt Museum to address the issue of vandalism. Among the townspeople assembled were representatives from the Homer Police Department, the City of Homer, the Town Square Project, artists, teachers and vandals. The group formed a circle around a pile of debris, the remains of a public art project that had recently been vandalized.

The artwork involved had been a custom made, artistically crafted sign. It had hung at the head of a pedestrian trail in the heart of Homer. The Poopdeck Trail is the result of collaboration between the City of Homer, the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust, and interested citizens. It connects the two main arteries of the town and passes through an undeveloped area, intended as the site of the future Homer Town Square. Signs were commissioned to mark the trailheads. Local art galleries, area non-profits, and individuals were involved in initiating the idea, spreading the word for proposals, and in selecting the final design. Money to underwrite the project came in small contributions from sections throughout the community, as the town had, at that time, no provisions in place to raise funds for public art. The signs were duly crafted and installed with much pride by artist Leo Vait and the community at large. Then, senselessly, the signs were beaten and destroyed. And so, we sat around what was left of the beautiful artwork.

The aims of this conversation were: to share information on vandalism in the community, with hope of finding who was responsible for past acts of vandalism and preventing future acts; to provide therapy in a group context for those who felt pain and anger over the matter; and to confess to acts of vandalism in one’s own life to help understand the underlying cause of this persistent social blight. Never was the group allowed to fall into the mentality of a lynch mob.

The facilitator, Deland Anderson, kicked the conversation off by recounting his experience with vandalism while in high school. Frustration and anger with his government were reasons he gave for purposely driving over two stop signs in his hometown. They were symbols, he maintained, of misguided authority figures in his life and of government corruption. Though he admitted that he still had trouble with authority, he professed that he no longer vandalized things, finding it more constructive to deal with individuals rather than rage at "the government."

This led to brief reflections on various age groups being associated with vandalism. Anderson recounted a conversation he had had with his 10-year-old twins. They maintained that there were no vandals in their grade school at present, but that they remembered a kindergarten student who had destroyed a “beautiful marble” drinking fountain in Paul Banks Elementary. They said he was an “angry” child. Anderson also recounted that he had chaperoned American college students in Italy who, as part of their night’s revelry, wanted to “go wreck stuff.” Then a participant in the conversation volunteered a memory of a girl in junior high who used to go through clothing stores with a seam ripper destroying fashion wear. The point emphasized was that not just guys are involved in vandalism. And not just young people are involved, added another. A longtime resident recounted how her mailbox had been bashed one night years ago. Other mailboxes in the area had also fallen prey to criminal mischief. When she was lamenting to a local businessman a couple of days later that someone had smashed her mailbox with a baseball bat, he remarked, “That’s not how we do it. We fasten a log across the back of our truck and then just drive down the road.” These were businessmen, she emphasized, who admitted to doing it out of boredom! Then someone confessed that he had ridden with other 40-50 year olds who drove around shooting signs until one guy blew his own side view mirror off. A youngster summed up what it’s like to be a victim of such mischief — you build a snow fort and someone kicks it down; you feel angry, you feel hurt, you feel afraid.

A list of various acts began to accumulate. Is graffiti vandalism, one person queried, or is it urban art? It depends on the intention, someone responded, and it depends on whether it’s your property that gets painted. Next someone reminded us that beautifully crafted Welcome signs at Anchor Point had been burned and the head of a carved eagle that formed part of the sign was taken, apparently as a trophy of some sort. Who would sit around with something like that in their room, the person wondered? Then someone confessed to being involved in mischief throughout childhood and even into his early twenties. He maintained that the deeds done by him and his friends were not intended to do harm, but to prove that they were brave by taking risks. At age 10 he and his friends used to steal the valve stem caps off cars parked in neighborhood garages. Huge collections of these trophies accumulated. Sometimes they wanted to be funny. Once, he said, they stole all of the apples off of a neighbor lady’s tree, ate them, and tied all the cores back on with strings! Reflecting on these actions, he said that he was trying to find some sense of personal power. His life in the early 1950s, he observed, was completely controlled by adults. He had no choices, and so he did what he wanted to feel powerful. Though he characterized his mischief as “pranks” rather than vandalism, he underscored that there was a certain measure of anger attached to his misdeeds. The conversation turned a bit when one person remarked about his young adult son who is “seriously frustrated about things” because he keeps getting run off various properties in the area for skateboarding. Consequently, said the father, his son views himself as a criminal. This leads to a sense of displacement in the community, another remarked, and that leads to feelings of powerlessness. And that, someone chimed in, is what leads to people scarring the paint on cars with nails or bottle openers.

Attention was again directed to the ruined sign in our midst. Why this, rather than something else, one person wondered? It was, after all, the second time the signs had been hit. This turned the conversation toward discussion of the causes of vandalism in general, the profile of our community as a site of vandalism, and solutions on a local basis.

Not all participants agreed about the causes of criminal mischief. The police said it is opportunistic, prompted by drug and alcohol use, involved kids in almost all cases, and is often tied to other violent acts. Someone else added that it happens when people don’t feel a sense of belonging in a community. Perhaps there are not enough positive messages being sent to young people in today’s society. Even more, maybe youngsters witness the cynical lies of adults, and then act out their frustration and despair through destroying symbols of beauty or pride. Dysfunctional families are often behind this sort of thing, one participant noted, and Homer is high on the list of communities with dysfunctional families. Though it is hard to identify just who the “at risk” kids are in a given community — because they come from all kinds of backgrounds — it is still harder to step in and do something constructive. Schools cannot share their information on troubled children. Parents of such children rarely take positive steps to intervene. Not enough mentoring programs are in place, and so there are too few positive role models to outweigh the negative influence of national hate trends centered on violence and images of destruction. Young people are fearful of their society and discouraged about the future. They are, one person remarked, robbed of their childhood today. Perhaps they bear witness to the end of the empire, another observed. Whatever the reasons involved, kids too often are unlinked from the older generations. Consequently they judge themselves by their peers, and often find validation in what are shortsighted and destructive behaviors.

Simple solutions were voiced and endorsed. Caning was not. First among the positive suggestions was to simply talk to young people. Let them know they show up on your radar, someone said. Say “Hi” in the grocery store, remarked another. Visit them at the hockey rink. Recognize the good that they do and validate them publicly as well as privately. Don’t save your praise. Practice tolerance on the individual level and promote understanding on the community level. Encourage young people to participate and to develop a sense of ownership and pride through community projects or chores around the house. Help them to become heroes. Foster the arts. Involve them in discussions regarding vandalism and listen to their ideas about solutions.

People must be involved, enfranchised, and empowered in order to feel a sense of belonging and stewardship. With young people, that is not often an easy task. But it can be accomplished in our community by taking pressure off the schools. They should not be seen as the primary care givers for our young people. Rather we need to highlight community-based youth organizations: promote programs such as the local Boys and Girls Club, the youth-led Teen Center, Big Brothers and Sisters, Headstart, Art for Kids, Homer Hockey (and other non-school sanctioned sports clubs), and any number of other local programs dedicated to our young people.

A summary comment may be drawn from the remark of one participant. We should, she said, weigh the isolated cases of vandalism against all of the great things that are being done in this community. So, even though the Pratt Museum’s annual outdoor art exhibit Facing the Elements has been hit by vandals 2 years in a row, we ought not lose hope. We need rather to accept that one of the elements is the Human element, and show our town that we will not give up creativity just because some wimps want to tear apart what we have done.