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I've seen lots of tweets about DHS actions in Portland & disbelief they're using graffiti as a sign of violence & lawlessness, justifying their crackdown. It may seem absurd or even laughable, but there's a whole law enforcement cottage industry devoted to the dangers of graffiti
Sometimes concern about graffiti is part of the long-discredited (but still widely believed) broken window theory. This thinking holds that graffiti is a sign of social breakdown which, if not dealt with, leads to further and more serious lawlessness.
There is also the belief that graffiti is in and of itself inherently bad, either because it is embedded in gang culture or because it is like an addiction. You start with tagging and pretty soon you're moving on to defacing buildings with murals, then drugs, and violence.
This is why police sometimes raise concerns about innocuous programs like graffiti art for kids held at libraries, etc. When I was a Halifax library board member a councillor (no longer on council) was upset about a graffiti art program for teens.
A few years ago, I wrote a two-parter for Halifax Magazine about how this played out in my town at the time, including the story of a cop tracking children's Instagram accounts. Here is part one. https://halifaxmag.com/cover/paint-the-town/
And here is part two. https://halifaxmag.com/features/he-quit-creating-art/
Here is the Ottawa Police Service: "Graffiti vandalism is not a victimless crime. When graffiti is left to spread in the community it can leave the impression that nobody cares or that nobody is in control. This is called the "broken window" syndrome." https://www.ottawapolice.ca/en/safety-and-crime-prevention/Graffiti-Management-Program.aspx
Here is the police magazine Blue Line, from 2016: "It’s the same routine to get into hip hop graffiti whether it’s Brisbane, Bangladesh or EcumSecum, Nova Scotia." https://www.blueline.ca/fighting_graffiti_with_tags-3577/
There used to be an annual conference dedicated to fighting graffiti. http://www.tagsconference.com/history.html
From their history: "...graffiti offenders are very mobile and share information online... This conference was developed as a means to improve training and to provide graffiti investigators... with the opportunity to develop investigative skills, network and share intelligence.."
You see the same stuff over and over again. "Hip hop graffiti," "graffiti vandalism" etc. Here's Edmonton: "The Broken Windows theory tells us that the appearance of disorder will attract and cause more disorder and the escalation of crime." https://www.edmontonpolice.ca/CommunityPolicing/PersonalPropertyCrimes/Graffiti
TL;DR Cops consider graffiti a threat and a sign of an undercurrent of lawlessness and take it very seriously, so I'm not surprised it would be used as in part as a justification for snatching demonstrators off the streets. /END
