That woman, MBTA Police Lieutenant O’Loughlin, has been a significant factor in the South Shore wipeout. In the ’80s she was given the duty of identifying tags and arresting vandals. By speaking at town and city meetings and informing other authorities about the particulars and supposed dangers of graffiti culture, O’Loughlin laid the groundwork for the current rash offensive. Says one well-known artist: “I’ve never met her, and I don’t ever want to meet her. All I know is that she’s tough as nails and she looks like a little boy.” He adds, with reserved admiration, “That bitch used to dress up like a thug and go undercover to bust people.”
Not everyone in the graffiti world is as respectful. For whatever reason, graffiti writers view her as the bête noire of the tagging world. While writers likewise have few kind words for her colleague, BPD Detective Kelley (imagine the relationship between mobsters and FBI agents), many hold a particular contempt for O’Loughlin, pointing emphatically to her record. In August 2004, she was demoted by the MBTA to patrol officer for seven policy violations, including “behavior,” “harassment,” “loyalty and integrity,” “discourtesy,” and “interference with work” (the latter of which “prohibits Police Officers from interfering with cases assigned to other Officers”). “She’s done some really cruel and sadistic shit,” says one writer. “She treats us like terrorists.” O’Loughlin, who was demoted for a period of approximately 19 months, was reinstated to her lieutenant position in March 2006. She did not return several phone and e-mail messages left with the MBTA communications department, which said she was on injury leave. Transit spokesman Joe Pesaturo declined to comment on the specifics of her demotion.
In 1995, O’Loughlin consulted the Massachusetts legislature in their drafting a tagging law dubbed the “Defacement of real or personal property” statute. The legislation designated graffiti as a felony and upped penalties to include harsher fines (up to $1500, plus retribution), prison time (up to two years for each charge), and the revocation of driving privileges for one year. Even worse for vandals was that the new statute allowed police to arrest writers “without a warrant” if they have “probable cause to believe that said person has committed the offense.” Gone were the days of wrist slaps. Suddenly, the ante had been raised significantly for outlaw artists: the possibility of imprisonment was on the table, and cops no longer needed to catch perps red-handed or on camera to arrest them. At the time, O’Loughlin told the Boston Herald: “The only way [graffiti] is going to stop is to really hammer these kids in court.”
In some cases, say law-enforcement officials, prison is the only way to keep taggers off the street. Kelley says that most chronic violators are either too egomaniacal or even too downright compulsive to stop bombing. During his and O’Loughlin’s tenure, they have busted numerous offenders who continued tagging even after their arrests.
