Vandals splatter graffiti on greenway

?We counted 60 or more locations on the greenway which were vandalized,? said McMinnville Police Chief Charlie Sewell. ?They vandalized buildings, trash cans and the walkway itself.?

Sewell said lawmen suspect the vandals struck sometime Wednesday night or perhaps Thursday morning in the pre-dawn hours and are wanting information from anyone who may have been in the area around that time.

Specifically, Sewell said references were made to an organization called TEPA 13, a Latin American street gang with roots in the Los Angeles area.

However, Investigator Captain Derwin Adcock said he does not suspect a local version of the violent Los Angeles street gang exists, but instead its moniker is being used by local youths who targeted the public park.

?I wouldn?t go so far as to say a gang like this is active,? Adcock said. ?Speculation is it could be teens or kids.?

Adcock said most of the vandalism had been cleaned up by Thursday afternoon after city crews worked all day to remove the paint from signs, trash cans, a bathroom, the trail and even trees.

The vandalism comes the same week Chief Sewell proposed a graffiti abatement ordinance where land owners, business and government grounds would be required to remove any graffiti from public view within a short time. The idea, Sewell said aside from removing a public blight, would be to prevent gangs from marking territory. The proposal has been passed on to aldermen and will likely be addressed in the near future.

The vandalism, which caused over $1,000 in damage and is being treated as a felony, is the most major vandalism since a group of teens known as the Blue Vandals spray painted major parts of the park with blue spray paint in the summer of 2005. On that occasion the youths spray painted obscenities and satanic symbols on numerous parts of the greenway. They were caught the same week when they were seen returning to the scene.

They claimed they committed the crimes because they were mad at the city for allegedly shutting down their local religious retreat, an assumption by the teens that was later learned to be wrong. The teens were placed on probation and made to each perform 500 hours public service work.