Downtown vandals hit six buildings

Several downtown buildings were vandalized with spray paint sometime between the night of Monday, July 20 and the morning of Tuesday, July 21. The blue spray painted symbol “SURx13” or in some places “x13” could be found on several walls, in alleyways and across windows.

Pittsburg Hot Links, the New Beginnings Community Church building and the Pittsburg Gazette were just a few locations hit by vandals. According to www.wikipedia.com, “sur is the Spanish word for south, but also stands for Southern United Raza. The number 13 represents the 13th letter of the alphabet, the letter M, in order to pay allegiance to the Mexican Mafia.” By the morning of Wednesday, July 22, much of the graffiti had been repainted by the city.

Mayor Shawn Kennington said the Pittsburg Police Department is investigating the crime. “It is very disheartening to see property that someone has worked hard to obtain or take care of to be defaced in any manner,” he said. “Although graffiti/vandalism may be a low level/high visibility crime, it can lead to more serious crimes so we take it as a serious threat to our community and will be working, how we can, with property owners to remove any graffiti and to bring justice to those individuals who have violated the law.”

Pittsburg Gazette Publisher Harry Darby said he is disheartened at the defacement of any part of historic downtown Pittsburg. “We are clearly disappointed in the person or persons that did this,” he said. “The local business owners all do such a good job of helping to keep downtown Pittsburg as attractive as possible, but we have full faith the police department will take care of the matter.”

Mayor Kennington said this is the time when downtown business owners and the surrounding community should band together to keep Pittsburg beautiful. “We need to capitalize on this as a reminder that as good neighbors we need to be ever vigilant and report suspicious activity in neighborhoods, downtown and in our community,” he said. “It is up to all of us to make Pittsburg a welcoming place to live, work, play and raise a family.” If you have any information about the vandalism, call the Pittsburg Police Department at (903) 856-7201.