Larry Naranjo cares about his community and doesn’t want it trashed. The Rio Rancho District 5 city councilor issued a stern warning earlier this month to anyone caught trashing his beloved community.
At the city council meeting on Aug. 20, Naranjo said he has seen an increase in taggings, markings and destruction of public and private property in his Panorama Heights neighborhood.
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“I’m going to tell whoever’s doing this that we are going to find you, catch you and make you pay for what it costs to recover and to repaint and to reprocess what you’re covering in the paint,” Naranjo said. “I don’t need to see your initials. I’m not interested in your face painting. I’m not interested in your face drawings.”
Naranjo said he has talked with Rio Rancho Police Chief Bob Boone about the situation. Naranjo wants to acquire some equipment to remove the tagging effectively. He also said he wants to have the walls repainted to match the original color as closely as possible.
Naranjo also said he wants to see remote surveillance cameras installed in areas that see a lot of tagging.
“I’m tired of seeing them do it,” Naranjo said. “They need to know we take it very seriously in Rio Rancho. We will take action.”
Naranjo wants residents to be the eyes and ears of the community. He said if you see someone tagging, destroying property or behaving suspiciously to call the police department.
Naranjo said he recently saw tagging in Albuquerque. He promptly called the Albuquerque Police Depart-ment.
“I don’t have a fear of calling the police,” Naranjo said. “I think people have this mental concept that the bad guys will find out they called. That’s not true. The bad guys don’t know you are calling and they are not going to find out you are calling.”
People who do this activity, according to Naranjo, want others to know they were there. Naranjo said another way to deter the activity is to erase the markings quickly and to prosecute the offenders.
“The more residents get involved, the quicker it will stop happening,” Naranjo said.
The councilor believes that residents should feel safe in their homes and neighborhood.
“The tagging makes residents feel as though they are in an unsafe neighborhood,” Naranjo said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a 12-year-old boy who doesn’t know what he’s doing or it’s a member of an organized gang that is doing the tagging, residents don’t know the distinction. A resident sees that and thinks they are living in a bad neighborhood.”
Naranjo said he is working with the police department on a tagging awareness video and other ways to help prevent the incidents from happening and informing residents what to do if they see people destroying property.
“Don’t disrespect my neighborhood,” Naranjo said. “If you want to practice that type of disrespect in your neighborhood, do it in your home and let you parents see you don’t respect them or the property.”
Naranjo refuses to be bullied or to allow his neighborhood to be sullied.
“I’m not going to sit back and allow you to come into our neighborhoods and our streets and our street signs and our walls and allow you to leave your little signature,” Naranjo said. “We’re going to catch you and when we do you’re going to pay. I advise you to take your activities and move on to somewhere else.”
The Rio Rancho Police Department can be reached at 891-5900.
Comments
2 comment(s)Dave wrote on Sep 8, 2008 8:44 PM:
Hang em high and do it publicly!!! "
Abn Infantry wrote on Sep 5, 2008 1:24 PM: