acramento will never be a first-class city until it gets tough on graffiti. The best way to do that is to start fining the parents and guardians of the vandals who desecrate our businesses, bike trails and public places.

Recently, Los Angeles County launched a demonstration project in Pico Rivera and unincorporated portions of Whittier to hold the parents and guardians of juvenile taggers liable for civil damages of up to $1,000, enforced by liens on their homes and businesses.

Los Angeles County spent almost $30 million on graffiti abatement last year. Even the county’s most liberal board members have decided that parents and guardians should be held accountable. The six-month project has been so successful that County Supervisor Gloria Molina has introduced an ordinance to expand it to the rest of the county.

Too often, taggers here are apprehended, disciplined and released to begin the cycle anew. In the interests of full disclosure, the building in which The Sacramento Union’s office is located has been repeatedly painted with graffiti, like many other office and retail locations in Sacramento. City government cannot make any headway on the problem because there are never any consequences for the taggers’ parents and guardians, who are either in denial about their children’s lawlessness or do not care. We can force them to care by hitting them where it hurts most—in their pocketbooks. And the fines extracted from these “enablers” can be dedicated to cleaning up their kids’ handiwork.

Inevitably, someone in local government will complain that such “tough love” law enforcement will unfairly burden working single mothers or other hard-luck guardians. But that is no reason not to pursue fines. Civil penalties should be high enough to be punitive, depending upon the defendant’s financial circumstances. Compelling a parent to take a temporary second job to pay for his or her child’s criminal behavior is entirely reasonable.

What worked in LA can now succeed in Sacramento. We just need leadership that will stop making excuses for taggers and their parents.