Fellow officer and anti-graffiti unit member Dan Daly agreed. It's like a cult thing, I think. Area A, which includes Roxbury, Mission Hill, Mattapan, and portions of Fenway and Dorchester averaged 140 arrests from January to August 2000, according to a report by the Boston Police. Area D, which includes Allston-Brighton, the South End and Back Bay, only averaged 26 arrests during the same period. But despite vandalism statistics and broken window theories, Rose knows deeper issues exist.
People assume graffiti writers are thugs.
Rose knows otherwise. Her good friend was a former graffiti writer. Police arrested Rose's friend Xacto four years ago. They fined him a large sum, gave him 600 hours of community service and placed him under house arrest. For six months, he wore a bracelet that monitored his activity.