How To Handle A Vandal

A couple of friends and I were on the subway last night, bound for Hollywood. Suddenly we noticed that a kid was writing on the wall at the top of the car. When he was through, we saw that that he had cited the book of Leviticus and a particular passage, though he didn't quote it. He alluded to it though, confusingly saying something about not making tattoos on yourself and adding "I am Jehova". That's how he spelled Jehovah.

I was myself first annoyed by yet another person degrading and devaluing public space. I hate that. There's no place that is safe from mindless destruction. That seems to be the reason behind so much of it: no reason at all. It's hardly better when it's someone like this guy who has a pretty clear motivation. The city has little choice but to endlessly and futilely attempt to eradicate such damage, and that adds up to a lot of money that could pay for more trains and more train lines, not that vandals like this guy would appreciate the value of that for them.

I don't mean to get in such a lather. In any case, he finished and I assumed he was gone for some reason. I instantly started mouthing off about it- critiquing the message, the construction of the message and the aesthetics of his choice to use multiple color markers. My friends joined in some as well, and we had a good time thoroughly nitpicking and parsing the vandal's work. Suffice it to say that we'd have done it a different way.

It was then suggested that perhaps the vandal was still right near us, though I'm not sure I was ever satisfied of that possibility's veracity. I did still wonder about how he would likely feel about our criticism should he be able to hear it. I guessed he wouldn't be appreciative, and that he would perhaps first go after me because of my volume or another of my friends (whose glasses could conceivably make him appear to be a "wise guy".) In any case, we got away just fine and no lesson need be learned.