A before and after photo of the graffiti cleanup the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association has done recently. This mailbox on Elderts Lane and 87 Road was repainted on August 19. Two kids were arrested last week for graffiti near that location. Photo courtesy of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association.
Two teens were arrested late last week in relation to a string of graffiti that has been going on in the Woodhaven area.
According to the 102 Precinct Community Affairs Officer Jose Severino, two males, a 16 year old and a 14 year old, were arrested on Thursday, August 30, for graffiti found on several mailboxes in Woodhaven.
According to Severino, the kids, whose names could not be released, are both residents of Woodhaven and have a history of spraying graffiti. Both have been picked up for graffiti crimes in the past. The young men were arrested at Elderts Lane and 80 Avenue around 3 o’clock that afternoon.
The two vandals were found to have different tags that police were able to trace in their database. According to Severino, the 16-year-old’s tag was “YUZ” and the 14-year-old used the tag “BME” as a way to mark who did the graffiti.
The Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association (WRBA) has launched a recent crusade against graffiti, organizing several clean-ups throughout the neighborhood with volunteers lending a helping hand.
Ed Wendell, president of the WRBA, expressed his satisfaction over the successful arrest for the graffiti. “We’re happy to hear that the 102 is on top of this and that they’re working with us on it,” he said.
Severino said that once they found what their tags were, they were able to go into their database and find that those tags were associated with other graffiti cases that they were looking into. He added that the WRBA’s work of keeping track of the graffiti in the area helped in finding other graffiti cases related to those tags.
Wendell said that the civic group intends on following up with the Queens District Attorney and the New York court system to stay up-to-date on this case and to see if the kids will face any punishment.
He said that the WRBA wants to avoid a similar situation to something that happened a few months ago when, according to Wendell, the organization learned of graffiti in two other areas in which arrest were made, one on Park Lane South and another on Atlantic Avenue. He said that they found out about the arrests well after it happened and the people who were arrested were released on their own recognizance.
The civic group hopes to have a different result for this incident and Wendell said that, with pressure from the WRBA, it will make the Queens DA and the judge see that the local community won’t stand for these crime so close to where they live.
“We just want a fair punishment,” he said.
By Luis Gronda
