I went downtown tonight to eat dinner. We had the usual great salads at Sprouts Cafe, and as we went out the door for a stroll down University and back I began to notice that many many stores and businesses have had their front plate glass windows scribbled on with what I guess are the diamond scribing tools. As we walked from block to block it was pretty much all down the street on random windows.

There is an absolute epidemic of this kind of scratch-fitti and it really makes me mad. I know that these plate glass windows are not cheap, maybe $1000 per window with safety glass and glazing ... perhaps more.

When some idiot scratches all into these windows it ruins them. Maybe someone can tell me different, but as far as I know there is no good way to get those scratches out, the whole window is garbage. In one night one vandal can destroy almost a million dollars of property, or just make everyone on Palo Alto feel crappy because their city has been attacked by low-life scum who do not understand the basic idea of civilization.

I see this scratching all over the place. In mirrors and all over the area in public restrooms and any other place these jerks can hide while they poison and kill everything they touch. There ought to be a shoot on sight order for people like this.

Has anyone else noticed this as much as I have, and what do you think? I think we need cameras in this city and we need to find and make an example of the good for nothing creeps that do this kind of stuff.