The reason for the felony charge is similar to purchasing a product in most other countries. You bargain back and forth until an agreement is made.

This kid won't be tagged (pun intended) with a felony. It will be reduced most likely. The felony charge is designed to get him freaked out so that he will confess to a lesser crime. It's like selling your home. Don't list it for the price you want. Go higher and let the buyer talk you down. That way you both get a bit of what you want.

His attorney will work on it right away (to get the felony reduced on a plea bargain). I'd be very surprised if the felony charge stuck.

He's not going to get in that much trouble, but it will be enough to seriously affect him for a couple years (fines, short jail time, community service, a good haircut, etc.).

I also tend to assume that he probably lives on someone else's dime, meaning he is probably unemployed or semi-employed and lives with mommy and daddy. Hopefully his parents will kick him out and make a man out of him. He probably should have been shown the door years ago. They call it tough love for a reason. It's tough on the kid and tougher on the parent, but it works. It's that old "this is going to hurt me more than it will you."

He's the perfect scenario of years gone by when the judge would say, "son, enlist in the military or go to jail." Then he'd go to the military, learn to be a man, and come out with respect, confidence, and real skills to succeed.

I just hope he was the one who was tagging the golfcart bridge over 74, because I am the one who covers it with paint each time it's tagged.

The brick wall he tagged at First Baptist Church (the church my family attends) had a horific message in large letters. It said, "God d--- us all!"

We were horrified when we saw it while driving by with our KIDS.

Is "God D--- us all" art? Not even close. It's vandalism.

I found the trick to beating these taggers is to go to Home Depot and buy specially mixed masonry paint. Then, grafitti or not, go and paint whatever part of town you want to look nice (I used an earthtone brown). Now, each time some young guy tags the bridge, I cover it up and the paint matches perfectly (instead of those ugly rectangles that are obvious).

If each person in the community just picked one wall somewhere to call their own, paint it (and have lots of extra masonry paint), then the taggers would eventually give up.

Our bridge (74) between Centennial and Cedarcroft only gets tagged during long breaks in school. Not too hard to figure out that it's a high school kid.

I'd love to catch someone doing it so I could follow them home and call the cops.

Back to the story: This "kid" who is 23 is about to learn a man-sized lesson. He's been an adult for five years. He should have graduated college by now. He should be finishing up his first year of a real career or in grad school, etc. Or he should be well-advanced in a good skill (like carpentry, welding, plumbing, etc.).

He should be a homeowner by now (or saving to be one in the next few years).

Instead he's a bum, and the sad part is that someone affords him the lifestyle to be a bum.

I don't feel like this man, yes , he is a adult, is being over charged.The charges fit the crime and hopefully will serve its purpose to be deterrent to others.

As for the postings adding sexuality into the picture, its more evidence that some people just don't get it..Straw man issues serve no real purpose.

The felony charge is predicated on the monetary amount of damage. In this case it's the estimated repair cost of $1,500 to $2,000. I think if the damage was $500 or less it would be a misdemeanor.

The arrest warrant for the felony charge said the damage was caused to "several" rear business doors at Braelinn Village.

I don't think he should be charged a felony. I do believe he should be the one to clean it up. Obviously he has never been made to clean up after himself. This will be a perfect opportunity for him to learn how to do so. I bet by the time he has finished cleaning he will never do it again. They can post what address he will be at on what day and the citizens can drive by and honk if they choose to do so. I know when I was growing up if I slammed the screen door, my dad made me stand there and open and close it 20 times without making a squeek. I learned quickly not to let the screen door slam on my way outside.

First member of the new community service grass cutting team?

this young would be caned and sentenced to prison time. Does anyone remember the Michael Fay incident back in 1994?
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For those of you that don't know, felony charges prevent any troubled child to further their lives in a positive way forever. The decisions that this peson made were wrong, and entirely intolerable, but there are better ways to punish him besides giving him felony charges. Felons cannot obtain a passport, vote, get any good job, join any military service. Basically this person will be condemned to a life of misery because of the poor choices he made as a young man? I'm sorry but that just doesn't sit well with me. Felons shoot and kill people, commit fraud, sell drugs and guns, rob people, etc.......... not by tagging. I say he should have to do an insane amount of community service, clean and fix any property he caused damage to on his own nickel, a couple years of probation and a few thousand dollars will curb anyones desire to spraypaimt anything.

He would learn a better lesson from simply cleaning his graffiti and being issued community service. Realistically, we are talking about artwork. Whether or not you like the appearance of this art form, it is still artwork. Sure, it may have made things ugly and most people do not like it, but would you consider it a felony? I don't see how anything he did actually hurt anyone. Did he physically damage any property or just paint it? He should be ordered to return everything he "tagged" back to it's original form, out of his pocket and from his own hard work. This will teach him life lessons instead of instilling fear and hatred in him towards the justice system and the community.

We will quickly lock up a kid who wants to paint and express himself artistically, but sit and watch the scenic destruction caused by the rapid growth of this once pleasant community. The city is currently operating in a deficit, isn't spending money on convicting this kid a waste of resources? They are going to charge the kid ($) then pay someone else to clean it ($). Why not just make him clean (free) it and give him time to think about his foolishness. (free) Then he can do community service for one of the thrift stores. (free+good)

Like the person below said: hang a sign on his neck and make him work for forgiveness. Thats how you learn lessons: give him a felony and he will hate the community forever.

What a poster child for feed the hungry... Too bad he did not have his Timbalands tied up, or he would have gotten away.... Anyone who had laid eyes on this cat in their neighborhood shoud have called 911 anyway whether he was doing anything or not.... Definately a LUKER....PEACE...

I like the whole 'caining' thing the Chinese did when they caught the other little scumbucket of ours 'tagging'. But since we are so humane here, I say this guy should have a mandatory sentence of cleaning and picking up trash and cleaning up spray paint all summer and next winter with a big sign on that says "I got caught spray painting buildings in Fayette County". A little humiliation and humble pie and some good hard work I tell you .... that's the ticket for this afro clown!

By the way, does he look like a Republican or Democrat to you?

And also, what kind of tagger uses freaking stencils? A wanna be tagger? Is that a 'wagger'? Maybe he's a fake tagger.... that would be a 'fa'.....oh.... never mind. Ha! What a moron!

Maybe he should be made to actually clean up the graffiti he created. With his own money and sweat...

If your neighbors fences were "tagged" by this guy. Tell them to call the police so it can be added to his list of crimes.

Loser...