EDITORIAL — Vandalism shouldn’t go unpunished

Thinking that he could get away with it, a 16-year-old vandalized the wall of a public school in Mandaue City in the early hours last June 10.

Fortunately for authorities and unfortunately for him, his act was caught on closed-circuit television footage. He was later identified and his mother was called to report to the mayor.

Now the minor and his mother will undergo an intervention program that includes community involvement services and counseling.

Kudos to the city officials for acting on what may seem like something so trivial, considering the problems we face today.

However, acts like vandalism shouldn’t go unpunished for two reasons: First, is to lure young kids away from a possible life of delinquency. Second, is so that taxpayers’ money can be better spent.

We understand that some youths feel a certain thrill when they break the law or do something rebellious. But for the young ones breaking the law is often the first path on the road to delinquency.

And it all starts with vandalism; acts that for them don’t seem to hurt anyone, like spray painting something on a wall, removing parts of a fence, chipping away parts of a wall, or defacing a traffic sign, among others.

But from frequent acts of vandalism there’s always the possibility of behavior escalating to petty theft, falling into the wrong group of people, or actually becoming a person of bad influence. And from there it can only get worse.

Vandals might also think defacement of public property is hurting no one.

But guess what? Vandalism involves destroying or defacing something that has already been paid for, and that means money will again have to be spent repairing or replacing what was damaged or defaced.

Of course, that means hard-earned taxpayers’ money; money that’s always badly needed for something else.

We wouldn’t be surprised if any highly-industrialized city in this country isn’t spending millions per year replacing or repairing property or equipment that was damaged or defaced.

Vandalism should never be tolerated and vandals should be shown the error of their ways, especially when still young.