Massive interest in the sign vandals. Some of the comments were thoughtful.

 ‘Diane’ speculated:  "Isn’t this sort of vandalism the sort that crime fighters are talking about nipping in the bud.
…..I believe this sort of behaviour can be the starting point of really anti-social behaviour for those that are inclined to the criminal side of life. For those whose personalities thrive on thrills and danger may find that vandalism becomes ho-hum boring and look for bigger ‘hits’ to provide the thrills."

Broken Windows policing theory holds that people inclined to prey on others will look for environmental indicators of the level of risk when deciding how far they can go. They try to pick up the norms in the neighbourhood.

The theory holds that persistent graffiti and un-repaired vandalism are a public confirmation that rules are not enforced, that other predators are getting away with it. So predation escalates as successive levels of otherwise marginal offenders join in. The huge reduction in New York crime followed a determined official attack on all low level signs of social disorder, with immediate cleaning of graffiti, and rigorous enforcement of petty offending rules.

That success came after decades of fruitless squad policing focus on "serious crime".

Wadestown experience may support that theory. Wadestown people tell  of a general increase in vandalism and graffiti over several weeks. It may be associated with the sight of trashed billboards in that suburb morning after morning.

We think the Wadestown hoarding destruction is separate from the systematic campaign against our signage elsewhere. The methods have differed.

It may be just an a local snob who thinks his suburb is above the vulgar enthusiasms of electoral politics. He need to assert dominance by destroying the impudent intrusion of messages in his territory. But the consequence may be greater threats to his patch, as emboldened petty criminals become less petty.

I’m still inclined though to tolerate low level interference with our signage. We did not put effort into trying to catch the early artists. The photo below was shown to TV3’s Stephen Parker as a benign example.

I liked the Bill Hammond ‘parrot’ on my shoulder.

Stuff picked up Stephen Parker’s TV3 interview report.

The DomPost did not even call to get supplementary comment. They had a delightful hoarding story yesterday on the Bowie family political tussle, but odd that they’ve otherwise largely avoided the election in their backyard. By not covering the suburban multi-candidate meetings they missed some superbly timed one-liners from Independent candidate Al Mansell.