A Mexican town official has taken an interesting approach to graffiti abatement, but it got him fired, Associated Press reports. 

A mayor in central Mexico says he fired the official for spray-painting the tushy of a teenage boy as punishment for graffiti tagging, according to the report. 

The report says police caught the 13-year-old tagging a wall recently and turned him over to the official, who’s charged with imposing penalties for petty crime. 

The penalty this official chose seems to me to pretty fairly fit the crime. In fact, it might have been even better to spray paint the kid’s whole body and have the kid out there cleaning up what he did, all colorfully painted himself. 

One would have to ensure the paint used won’t damage the kids – maybe something water based and washable – but I think this approach has potential here in the United States. 

Maybe, the punk painting could be done by the victim of the punk’s tagging. A little poetic justice. Plus, the kid now has some idea what it’s like when someone does something to you that you don’t like. 

That Mexican mayor reportedly said he fired the official because he should have notified the boy’s parents so they could pay for the damage, and not punish the teen personally, and I think maybe the mayor had a partially valid point. Maybe contacting the parents, at least on a first offense, and offering the option of their paying to have the graffiti removed is fair. But after that, I think a little pink paint – daisies and polka dots, maybe – applied directly to the punk, and/or the punks favorite clothes, might impart a pretty powerful message to others thinking of trashing their communities in that way. 

Have PoliticalMavens.com delivered to your inbox in a daily digest by clicking here