Tuesday, May 25, 1999
Cleves police take seriously graffiti aimed at two officers
BY LEW MOORES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CLEVES — Police are comparing the graffiti found on a police cruiser with other graffiti that has been found on buildings around this small village, but it doesn't appear similar.
“We've had graffiti in the village, there's no question about that,” said Cleves Sgt. Harry Arnold. “I went around photographing some trying to make comparisons. But it doesn't appear there's any real comparison that I can tell.”
Police are taking the spray-painted graffiti seriously because it appeared on a police cruiser, was profane and was found on a personal car and another city vehicle parked behind the police station on Miami Avenue.
Profane references
Some of the graffiti appeared to be directed to one or both of the female police officers in this village of 2,300 on the western edge of Hamilton County, along the Ohio River.
The officers were not named, said Sgt. Arnold, but there were profane references to gender. He said both women are good officers and said he couldn't “imagine them alienating anybody to the point where they would strike out at them in particular.”
There are two full-time officers and 11 part-time officers in the village.
“We've never had this kind of problem before, where it's directed at our department,” said Sgt. Arnold. “We take it very personal. We're not taking this lightly.”
Police have no leads or suspects in the vandalism, which they think took place between 12:30 and 2 a.m. Sunday.
Not enough to do
Ron Bowling, who lives on Miami Avenue, the main street through the community, said the village does not have any gang-related problems, although some of the graffiti seemed to contain gang-inspired references.
The number “187,” spray-painted on the cruiser, is the California penal code reference for homicide and is used as gang slang for killing a police officer.
Mr. Bowling, who organized the successful campaign last year to keep the village from dissolving, said youths could have picked up on such references from popular culture, whether from film or music.
“I think it's blown out of proportion to think these are gang-related,” Mr. Bowling said. “One problem is there's just not a lot of things for kids to do down here.”
Police agree.
“We've never had a gang problem,” Sgt. Arnold said. “The problem is there's really nothing for youngsters to do. So they do their own thing.”
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