Shropshire Star comment: Good folk again left with mess
The incidents of vandalism in various Shropshire towns in recent days have, in isolation, been annoying and at a relatively low level.
To put them in perspective, nobody died, and the harm that has been done can be corrected, albeit at a cost in time and money.
For those on the receiving end, these attacks are dispiriting and pointless. They spoil things and places, and for what? You wonder what kick those who do these things are getting.
While they are low level and irritating, they do have a profound impact. According to the volunteers who look after the ancient castle at Whittington, the whole future of the building is threatened by the cost of putting right what has been done by vandals with aerosol can graffiti.
What has happened in Whittington has been echoed in Bridgnorth where first the Quayside was sprayed with luminous paint, and then various other parts of Low Town.
The graffiti is on a large scale, making it very visible. It is not the sort of thing visitors and tourists come to Bridgnorth to see. It gives a bad impression and leaves in despair those who are working to make the town look good.
In Shifnal, the millennium sensory garden has had its flowers torn up and plants from the flower beds thrown about in the second act of vandalism there in only a few days.
Culprits
Once more, ordinary good folk of a town are left to clear up the mess.
Unless and until the culprits are brought to book, we will not know who to blame, but experience tells us that quite often those who are behind such acts are not grizzled crooks who are evil beyond hope of redemption, but are children or teenagers, perhaps a group of them egging each other on.
In the school holidays they will have time on their hands to get up to mischief which goes beyond the merely naughty and into the realms of criminality.
They have to take responsibility for their actions, but then so do the parents and guardians who should be keeping them on the straight and narrow and knowing where they are and what they are up to. And everybody has a responsibility to report acts of vandalism.
Once the offenders have their collars felt by the police, any ‘fun’ they were having evaporates quickly.
