MARQUETTE, Mich, (WZMQ) – Now that the weather is warming up people are getting outdoors more, unfortunately that also means an uptake in graffiti.
Each year in the spring, The Marquette City Police Department says it sees a rise in graffiti cases, with markings on the bike path, and on the walls outside local businesses.
Marquette City Police Detective Nate Dawson said vandalism charges can stack up quickly, and even reach felony level charges.
“The more a person does this sort of thing, the higher the cost to clean up, the higher the charges,” said Dawson, “so you can actually get charged with a felony if you do enough graffiti. So, we don’t want people to go around defacing other people’s property. If you want to spray paint something, paint your own property, paint your car, paint your house, but don’t paint other people’s things.”
Businesses tagged so far this year include Yoop-Phoria, Iron Bay Restaurant, the Elks Lodge, Diggs, and other buildings in downtown Marquette.
According to other business owners on Washington Street they aren’t concerned about graffiti but are aware of the recent incidents. Some business owners said that they have seen incidents in the past and are hopeful the acts are just lone individuals making “bad decisions.”
Iron Bay Restaurant Manger Shannon Johnson said she saw two different tags on their building.
“It is just one of those things, like in my time of working here I have never seen it happen before,” said Johnson. “Marquette, I don’t think has an issue with graffiti, I walk around downtown all the time and I see the graffiti everywhere.”
The Marquette Police department is asking anyone with information about the graffiti to reach out to them at 906-228-0400.
