We grin and bear it when we see graffiti on the walls of buildings and public areas. Or when we see a busted toilet at Coeur d’Alene’s City Park band shell restrooms. Or when we see newly planted flowers pulled up or sprinkler heads snapped off at a favorite park.

After all, there’s not much society can do to rein in drunks, irresponsible teens and gangs who commit most vandalism. The scofflaws are hard to catch because they generally do their nasty work at night. Communities and police departments aren’t willing to reassign police officers from traffic patrol and crime enforcement to handle such petty acts.

As a result, the vandals get away with their misdeeds. Cities and counties pay tens of thousands of dollars to clean up their messes. Visitors get a bad impression anyway. On Sunday evening, a visitor exclaimed to a companion as she emerged from the City Park public restrooms in the Lake City: “What a mess!” Apparently, one toilet stall door had been torn half off its hinges and toilet paper and hand towels were all over the floor.

Communities make a mistake when they don’t crack down hard on graffiti and other minor crimes.

Rudy Giuliani subscribed to the Broken Window theory during his two terms as New York City mayor – the theory espoused by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling that broken windows in the neighborhood begat other broken windows if left unrepaired, that littered streets begat more litter, and “eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there” or start breaking into cars. Giuliani adopted a zero-tolerance attitude toward subway fare evasion, public drinkers, urinators and the “squeegee men” who demand payment for wiping windshields of stopped cars.

As a result, rates of both petty and major crime dropped substantially.

In a weekend story in The Spokesman-Review, one park official after another in Spokane and Kootenai counties lamented the cost and futility of fighting vandalism. Post Falls Parks Director Dave Fair said he could hire another parks and recreation worker with the $30,000 the city spends annually to fight vandalism. Taylor Bressler, Spokane’s park operations manager, discussed how demoralizing it is for employees to work for the city when their efforts often are destroyed by reckless individuals with a bent to create havoc.

Rather than cry and wring our hands about vandalism, city officials should adopt Giuliani’s no-tolerance approach toward vandals. It would be easy to pinpoint trouble areas where increased foot patrols could cite individuals caught damaging public restrooms and littering parks. Authorities should arrest people caught vandalizing or writing graffiti in public areas. Then, they should make the names and photos of the culprits public.

Such actions would send a strong message. It wouldn’t take long for vandals to learn that an attack on public sites will be treated as an attack on the community and its people.

Giuliani proved communities can do something about petty, annoying crime, even in the largest of cities.