The city of Oakland has threatened to fine a 102-year-old homeowner $1,100 if he does not clean graffiti off his fence.
Victor Silva Sr turns 103 in two months, is confined to a wheelchair and has lived and paid taxes in the crime-ridden California city for 80 years, but earlier this month was sent a citation notice warning him to remove spray-paint from his property.
City of Oakland officials told Mr Silva if he did not paint over the graffiti by the 19th he would be hit with an initial penalty of $1,100, and an additional $1,277 for each failed reinspection.
“[I] thought ‘somebody’s crazy’,” Mr Silva told KTVU.
“It was so absurd, it’s like a joke. If you drive around the city and see the graffiti everywhere, it’s just I don’t know what to say,” his daughter-in-law Elena Silva said.
Mr Silva and his family said he used to regularly paint over graffiti sprayed on his property, but now even with the help of his son, Victor Silva Jr, they struggle to keep the fence clean due to frequent attacks by vandals who the city seems unable to stop.
Meanwhile, a utility box up the street belonging to the city is covered with unremoved graffiti.
Mr Silva Jr said the family’s small business has been broken into three times, and that on one occasion where he found a burglar inside he called 911 only to be put on hold.
“I’m put on hold every time. So it’s hard to understand where our tax dollars are going. They can’t answer 911, but they can come out and hassle you about a fence?” he said.
He added that he fears other centenarians are being “harassed” by the city while criminals are allowed to run amok, saying “the system is not working”.
Crime in Oakland, which went from 93.5% White in 1940 to 27.2% in 2020, has risen sharply in recent years with police data showing that robberies increased by 38% from 2022 to 2023, motor vehicle theft 51%, and burglaries 23%.
A California resident said on X that said Mr Silva’s plight was the “definition of anarcho-tyranny“.
The term refers to a system of government that fails to protect its law-abiding middle class citizens from crime and violence, while ruthlessly persecuting them for minor infringements and/or innocent conduct.
