CHRIS GREENWOOD says the writing should be on the wall for those who deface our beautiful city.

I FEEL so strongly about this subject that I'm not sure whether to get on my soapbox, or to grab it and start swinging violently at all those who stand in my way.

Graffiti. Such a pretty word. It comes from the Italian "graffio", which means a scratch, for all those who savour the mongrel origins of our language.

Well here are some more words for the small number of mindless idiots whose territory-marking antics make those of dogswild animals look positively civilised.

You make me sick. If I catch you I'll string you up and spray you from head to toe with indelible fluorescent paint before shoving the thickest marker pens I can find in every orifice.

Sadly, that last part is colourful fantasy.

But the ugly reality for many residents of York is to be greeted daily by the depressing sight of unsightly scrawl across homes, businesses, street signs and vehicles and historic buildings.

In my neighbourhood we have a useful row of friendly shops; a baker, butcher, grocer and a small supermarket. They are convenient and friendly, but the street has a Jekyll and Hyde personality. By day the shops are a meeting place for people young and old. By night gangs of youths loiter outside the late-opening supermarket because they've got nowhere else to go.

They are bored and feckless.

I don't see what they get up to while they are there, but I've got a good idea.

When they are gone the steps, doors and shop fronts are left covered in graffiti debris like a shoreline after a retreating tide.

It doesn't stop there. The surrounding streets suffer too. Recent attacks look as though thugs have practised on neighbouring homes before reaching the bigger stage of the main street.

A derelict shop front, recently repainted white, has had a bright green symbol sprayed on every board. The wall of a nearby home seems to have become an unofficial message service for abusive half-wits.

Frustratingly, we, the people who live in these streets, are powerless. Vandalism is a coward's crime and is practically impossible to police. I've never seen anyone in the dock for writing graffiti.

We recently published CCTV pictures of teenage yobs daubing a shop door in St Andrewgate. This must have heartened the residents who set up the camera, but sadly moments like that are rare. Anyway, tell me officer, what would you do if you caught a 16-year-old writing on my home? Probably take their details and give them a verbal warning. Fill in a youth action form, perhaps. In extreme cases parents may be brought to the station for a chat or a formal caution given to an adult offender. None of this really touches the perpetrator's conscience or impresses upon them the consequences of their actions for the law-abiding majority.

So what is the answer? Not sniper posts on the rooftops manned by enthusiastic members of neighbourhood watch, that's for sure, or tougher laws and stricter penalties. Remember these people aren't being caught.

My message to those that care, and if you have got this far you probably do, is this. Do something to clean it up. And do it sooner rather than later because in my experience graffiti breeds by itself.

If it's blighting your street mention it to those who live there or who run the business. It may not always be your property, but this is our community.

Chris Greenwood is the Evening Press crime reporter.

Updated: 09:40 Friday, June 04, 2004