Another Year in Graffiti. All that has changed are the names on the roadway. As tourists pass by New Ipswich, NH during the New England Fall foliage season one can only imagine the impression that are left on their minds. So it’s now December and it’s been another year of spray painted roads in this rural town of about 4500. Year after year a few kids spray paint the roads during high school graduation around May and the paint usually stays down on the roadway all year long. Actually it’s graffiti and it against the law to deface public property. This is garbage you see on the side of buildings in Boston as you pass by in a train. Obviously it reduces the value of all property in town, but especially property within a stone throw of the graffiti. The question that most of the town residence would have is why is it still continuing to happen? The police seem unable to stop this even when graffiti shows up only a few hundred feet down from their police station, year after year, on one of the most highly traveled roads in New Ipswich Rt 124. One would think that since kids hang in-groups that the names on the road would be a good lead on who or what groups of friends seem to be doing this.
I haven’t seen the police with the culprits out there in the streets of New Ipswich scrubbing the streets down. This may seem to some today as cruel and unusual punishment. Though, this would be assuming they would even have the know how to catch them. I’ll give them a hint – “It happens every year and in the same spots, probably the same weekend too.”
The top 10 reasons people think this continues to happen yearly, but you may have others:
- Some local teens do not care, are ignorant, and since own nothing of any real value related the graffiti on public property as a victim less crime.
- Some parents are definitely turning a blind eye. The names on the road are probably the names of your kid and the friends he or she hangs out with. Maybe you don’t want to make that connection…
- In the spirit of graduation the police are ignoring the issue and a small percentage of town children are victoriously continuing this town ghetto tradition.
- There are other more important crimes to solve, especially the ones the police know they can actually solve.
- They have tried, and are continuing to try, but are still baffled at how the huge graffiti still manages to appear under their radar.
- This crime is not as important because most of the people complaining are homeowners who are only concerned with the beauty and value of their neighborhood.
- The police do not have the high tech technology it would take to stop this, MMM? I don’t know that doesn’t sound right now does it!? One would think a low-tech stakeout or a cheap video camera would find the culprits especially when it happens year after year and at the same locations.
- Maybe they are waiting for the culprits to feel guilty and turn themselves in?
- It’s not a real issue to the police, because no one has been hit by a car while painting the roadway- yet.
- It’s not illegal immigrant graffiti.
One final thought. Maybe next year will be the year the graffiti will be stopped. It’s been a yearly event in New Ipswich so we predict not. Don’t ask the police to stop this, as you’ll only be wasting your time like all the others who have come before you already. The community of locals need to get involved in this one. We know the police are not responsible for the up bringing of these criminals, but they are responsible to stop it or reduce it. Perhaps with all the carpenters in town they could erect a large billboard for them to deface instead of the street. At least then they could get credit for their work. So are the the police turning a blind eye, or is this issue much more complex than a commoner can understand? What do you think?
A few more tourist pictures of the center of New Ipswich, NH. These picture were taken about 8 months after they first showed up.
“Anyone looking at the foliage?”
Feel free to comment on this child like generational rite of passage.
11 Comments
February 7, 2008 at 1:27 pm
They and their parents should be ashamed, they don’t have the fortitude, or aptitude to raise thier children in a respectful manner. It may be just a little old road in New Ipswich New Hampshire USA, but many men have given there lives to protect and preserve it…
March 4, 2008 at 4:32 pm
The New Ipswich police do not care to take action to stop this. Chamberlain and the rest of them all have their own agenda, such as sucking the life out of the 15 minutes of illegal alien fame that has now past them by. I’m sure they will say it’s a matter of resources. Personally I just don’t think it’s an issue they want to win and stop. Lets not offend the young minority in town, because the police as a department over the years has probably tried to build a trusting relationship with the students. So lets keep this illusion of a relationship alive at the expense of property owners aka the tax payers. Remember kids, the relationship ends the second you graduate or speak out against the department or an individual officer. Then the “buddy system” doesn’t include you anymore. What a surprise. The police should arrest the culprits! However, they don’t want to.
May 29, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Entice says : I absolutely agree with this !
September 9, 2008 at 12:12 am
Way back in the “Old days” when the Greenville Trestle was still around, the high school seniors would spray paint on it, after graduation. After the trestle was removed we (the class of ‘87) spray painted the road. I will admit that it included the whole class. This was 50 graduates, of all class, color and creed that were represented by that class. We were actually PROUD that every single one of us participated. Yes, I am almost 40 now, and have a 19 year old and a 14 year old. I do think this is a by-gone thing. I was surprised that the kids brought the graffiti into town, on town hill, of all places. The trestle was located on 31, between Greenville and Mason, on the way to Wilton.
Maybe I am admitting a crime, that I vowed NEVER to say, but it was not concidered then as a true crime. Like I said, it was a “right of passage”, and only was done by each graduating class, or members of the class.
I am not sure if that is the only time, now days, that the graffiti happens…but I think our “Class of ‘87″ wore off pretty fast, maybe the paint was different then? Maybe we painted the road, but did not “spray” paint it…and that is the difference?
Anyway, I still smile. Get indignant, but it is a ritual that has happened since I can remember, from when I was a little kid. ( So that would be at least 1978)…..NOTHING NEW!!!!!
September 18, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Entries without capital letters on every word at the start of a sentence, and the use of the F word, actually gets your comment deleted.
September 18, 2008 at 11:20 pm
It’s no doubt a ritual. Perhaps a billboard to spray paint up in town built by all the carpenters in town would be a solution. Put it up 3 month over the summer, then take it back down until next year. But it’s not about how the adult population demands it or wants it to be. It’s about being a kid, doing the exact opposite, and not having the sense to know the true impact that it truly has on the area. It may never stop, but at least it needs to be toned down a bit.
September 27, 2008 at 11:18 am
On that note, I think the billboard thing is a great idea! I now live in a small community in NE Texas, and my daughter attended (and graduated) from the high school here.
Every year the senior class painted on the side of an old cotton gin/ mill.
Some years the class opted to white wash it, instead. The point is, is that every one knew about it and participated. My daughter was dissapointed that her class did not “get to”, as the gin no longer is there.
But the idea is that, somehow…even across 1800 miles, kids still desired to show thier pride on graduating by PAINTING something. Weird, huh?
I imagine that the class did it at night, and seemed to be “sneaking” and doing something that was not really hurtful, but still “bad”…why kids do this, who can say?
Maybe the key is to direct that kind of “independence” and find a really cool adult to steer the kids to a place that is already pre-selected, to paint up a storm. Who knows???
I, myself, think graffitti is not always pretty, and yes is a defacement of public property.
With all the kids so artistically inclined we (or “they”) should encourage the kids to use their imaginations on that night to display something truly great to the town!! Pick a wall to paint a mural, or something…declare it theirs!
I am not joking when I say artistically inclined, either…I know those kids have a lot of enthusiasm, and if directed can still be “persuaded” to do the right thing.
They just want people to make a big deal of them…and we love our kids, so why not use OUR brains and teach them something without making them seem/feel like typical criminals?
November 24, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Wow, it’s crazy people like you that get kids like me arrested. spray painting your name on town hill and in front of your driveway is a tradition in new Ipswich, it always will be. all the adults know about it, but no one cares. everyone is always excited to drive up town hill and see what creative things us kids came up with this year. no one writes anything vulgar or bad on the hill, just class of XX (whatever year it is, mine was 08) and our names. back when my brothers graduated the cops actually blocked town hill off so they could paint without worrying about cars. its no different than how our school allows us to paint the roof leading up to our soccer field. My name’s on the roads, and so are all my friends, and i hope to see my kids names up there.
December 2, 2008 at 8:41 pm
That’s wonderful Kevin. We are all “excited” too to see all the wonderful ghetto art sprayed on the roads. If you actually want to be thought of as creative and appreciated you’ll have to appeal to a greater audience. “All the adults know about it and no one cares.” Lets modify that to say, “All my friends and cousins and anyone that doesn’t have to look out their window at it doesn’t care.” Hoping to see your kids names in lights someday on the roads of New Ipswich is an incredible accomplishment. This time just make sure they sign their last names too. I do believe the part about the New Ipswich Police blocking the main road through town, probably just to stay cool looking in the eyes of local kids, while they vandalize state property. The problem with the whole thing Kevin is that you don’t own a driveway. Once you do and someone paints your mailbox, stop sign, end of your driveway, etc, etc you will feel different. Trust me when I say the cops know they will not stop it. Over the years they have done practically nothing to try to suppress it, which is why they have earned a place on Rotten Neighbor.com. Like every event in history, large or small, only when someone gets killed, something is done. This will be no exception. Lets hope it’s not your future child the paramedics are scraping off the roadway lying next to his or her name in the dead of night. However, it would make identification of the body easier. Blog me back in 15 years…when your mailbox is stolen.
December 9, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I did put my last name on the road, they know exactly who wrote what where. but since it doesnt look bad on the roads and it doesnt say anything vulgar people dont mind it being there. i think that it is really funny that the people that complain about the paintings typically dont live in the mascenic area. and yes, our artwork is very “ghetto”. that was a lie. our “artwork” is actually not that ghetto at all. we just paint our names on the road, driveways, or parking lots, or wherever we think it should go. for the most part signs are left untouched because of the money it takes to replace them, but as always there are always a few that think its ok for “just them” to paint the signs. I wouldnt expect to see this tradition ending anytime soon, so until then, ill stay curious as to what ‘09 will paint on the roads!
October 4, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Again I think the Somero family is out of touch and need to move out