WAIMEA — After volunteers spent much of the day Saturday cleaning up a mess left by vandals at the Waimea Christian Educational Center and After School Program, they returned Sunday to find the doors of the church vandalized again. On
WAIMEA — After volunteers spent much of the day Saturday cleaning up a mess left by vandals at the Waimea Christian Educational Center and After School Program, they returned Sunday to find the doors of the church vandalized again.
On Sunday morning, nearly every panel was defaced with explicit language and graphic artwork against the church and the minister, including a message that they would strike again each time the doors were repainted, said Pastor Olaf Hoeckmann-Percival of Waimea United Church of Christ, which operates the program and maintains the Education Center.
“This behavior is a cry for help,” Hoeckmann-Percival added.
More than 150 square panels on 10 sets of doors were defaced Saturday. About the same amount were found Sunday.
The vandals — officials believe there are at least four suspects involved — also cut through a screen to get through an office window, but were unsuccessful.
The building graffiti also came just days after vandals “tagged” several white cars throughout Waimea and Kekaha.
Hoeckmann-Percival said that the graffiti is nothing in and of itself.
He believes that the actions are “a reaction to the good that we are trying to do.”
Youth that are confused and angry tend to rail out at authority, and it is programs like this that give them a sense of place, he said. They may come from broken homes and lack the love and attention and they find at the Education Center as long as they follow the rules of no swearing or fighting.
“Something good is going to come out of this, it always does,” Hoeckmann-Percival added.
James Beardmore, WIUCC Educational Center Coordinator, said the graffiti is a personal attack aimed at the church and the minister as the personification of the rules.
“One of the rules is not to swear,” Beardmore said. “We don’t want them to hurt each other and to watch the language.”
The program represents one image and the vandals want to present another, Beardmore added. The church can accept them but they cannot accept bad language and behavior.
“We know them by name and that makes a difference,” Beardmore said. “We have known the kids since in elementary school who are now high school juniors and seniors.”
A few volunteers, including young men and women who use the gymnasium and other programs spent the better part of Saturday painting over the graffiti.
Hoeckmann-Percival said he wasn’t sure when the next round of clean-up will occur. The formula is not to respond to negative behavior with negative attention, he said. At the same time he said they can’t reward it and that it is important to paint over it right away.
“It is important to show grace and understanding,” he said. “It is also a warning to us that if we don’t pay attention, this is more of what we will get and society will suffer for it as well.”
They said this type of tagging is meant to claim a certain area.
“They are saying that this is not a church area; this is not the church’s program, this is our crew,” Hoeckmann-Percival said. “We don’t know who did this,” he said.
However, before they had the first batch of graffiti painted over on Saturday, Hoeckmann-Percival said the vandals had already had it posted on Facebook. Some of the messages are actually advertisements for an online graffiti supply business that sells pens that adhere to all types of surfaces including glass, he said.
“This is part of the culture, if you will, absolutely,” he said. “There are gang names, or crew names.”
The last time he recalled tagging was about three years-ago, when the “homeless boy crew” and “west side crew” got to fighting over the property. Each group tagged one side and they fought in the middle, he said.
“These are new kids,” he added.
Hoeckmann-Percival said he is talking to Kaua‘i’s UnderGround Artists about a permanent art project. He said a creative project in the same genre that is nondestructive and not offensive would help thwart vandals.
“If KUGA comes in, maybe some of these kids will come in to help and they may see a positive way out,” he said.
Kaua‘i Mayor Bernard Carvalho, Jr., said he was “very disappointed to hear about someone or a group of people painting graffiti on a building where wonderful programs are offered.”
The mayor also decried the vandals’ actions as “disrespectful” and encouraged anyone with information to report it, even anonymously, to Kaua‘i police.
If you have information, call Crime Stoppers at 241-1887 or Police Dispatch at 241-1711.
