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Like Cartwright, Officer Randy Campbell of the California Highway Patrol had tried the usual means of catching a criminal before turning to the Net.

For two years Campbell had been after a graffiti artist who signed his work "G.K.A.E." The tagger's work was displayed on brick buildings and freeway signs all over Southern California, even though the signs were surrounded with razor wire. Campbell, coordinator for the graffiti task force in the state's southern division in Torrance, Calif., says graffiti artists cost the state $200 million a year in cleanup bills. G.K.A.E. was particularly elusive, but Campbell eventually learned that the tagger was a man named Tim Badalucco, whereabouts unknown.

The breakthrough came when Campbell discovered that many taggers set up Web sites to display pictures of their graffiti. "When I download pictures of graffiti, along with an artist's name from the Internet, evidence is literally handed to me on a silver platter," Campbell says.

But more important, the Net helped Campbell figure out where to find **********. Through a newsgroup for graffiti artists, Campbell learned that ********** had moved on to Seattle, and he notified the police there. Soon the Seattle cops started noticing G.K.A.E.-signed scrawlings. A lucky beat officer in his squad car caught ********** red-handed at a wall, spray paint in hand, signing his moniker to his artwork on a wooden fence at a construction site. Campbell filed for extradition and handed over the downloaded evidence to prosecutors. *********** was convicted of felony vandalism.

Campbell has also set up a cops-only Web site that allows officers to log on and see samples of other infamous graffiti taggers who may be on the lam.

*edit- for crying out loud, remove the guy's real name!!!

''Minors may not possess spray paint or similar materials unless they are used for legal activities sponsored and/or supervised by a parent, legal guardian, employer or teacher. Offenders may be fined and, if they are adults, jailed.''

wtf that doesnt make any sense

She's a little philosophical about the fact that there are so many sites that need their help.

"They put it up, and we take it down," she said, referring to the graffiti vandals. "It's fun for us, but it seems it would be a waste of money for them buying all that paint."

Ciara Clemens, 13, said she had never liked graffiti and jumped at a chance to do something.

"It's better to go out and fix it than just sit and complain," she said with a shrug.

Hardy, of East Oak Lane, gives up his Saturday mornings, too. It's not because he wants to hang out with children, he said, although it's obvious he enjoys their company. It's not because he wants to be viewed as a nice guy. It's because he grew up in Cobbs Creek, and was once a Transfiguration student himself.

"I guess you could say it's my way of giving back," he said, "but I really just look at it as a way of helping."

The group has received equipment and logistical support from the city's Anti-Graffiti Network, said Hardy. Money for shirts was donated by Transfiguration School and grateful residents of the 700 block of South Cecil Street after their block was cleared of graffiti in October. Raspino's Supermarket in the 5800 block of Baltimore Avenue has become the children's official sponsor and is planning to honor them with a banquet in March.

Though the members of the group are on a mission to beautify their community, they are still children, which means they find ways to have fun even while at work.

On Saturday, they were at the intersection of 61st Street and Irving Avenue, painting over graffiti on an apartment building and a small church.

"Man, it looks like you stabbed somebody," Andre Robinson, 12, told Brittany Parks, also 12, who was dripping brick-red paint from her hands onto her pink sweat pants.

"Oh, please. You're always picking on me," Brittany replied before laughing and running away.

A little later, a small group of the children broke out in a screeching rendition of the Rev. Kirk Franklin's "Lean on Me."

Hardy watched them with a smile.

"This is a good community, and these are good kids," he said. "If you give them an opportunity to do something productive for the community, they'll take that opportunity."

Although some may need a slight push.

"I don't like graffiti and I want to make the world a better place," Domonique Childs, 11, recited when asked why she participated in the outings.

Then she added, smiling: "And my mom and Mr. Hardy talked me into it."

this makes me sick. Hopefully its some staged crap or bullshit.

it doesnt matter graff cant be stopped no matter how many pathetic attempts are made to attack graffiti it wont be stopped.

The curfew, which is enforced until dawn, is one of the most severe in the country. Violators can be fined $75.

The curfew began last month, following a summer in which rowdy kids flooded Palmer's park, drank beer and caroused late at night. Graffiti was scrawled about, and the bank's night drop-box was filled with trash.

In two of the more heinous acts, two chickens were thrown to their death from the grain elevator and the post office's flag was burned and thrown into a portable toilet.

"You could tell they were drunk. They'd be hollering obscenities until 1 or 2 in the morning," said Tracy Tull, who lives in a pre-Civil War house across from the park in the town 40 miles southeast of Springfield. "Someone would have ended up getting hurt real bad. People would come speeding through at 60 mph."

The big kids would refuse to give up the swings and seesaws, too. "They won't let us play," said 9-year-old Derrick Williams.

Some residents blamed kids from outside -- not just the 50 or so here -- saying police crackdowns in nearby towns pushed the party to Palmer.

So far, nobody has been caught breaking the curfew, which used to be 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends.

"It's good because people are not coming to town and getting in trouble, but it's bad that we don't get to see our friends," 15-year-old Amanda Strunk said.

Mayor Cayle Davis said the town council will lift the curfew if the children show they can behave. "But it won't be before next spring," he promised.

Ken Aldersen, executive director of the Illinois Municipal League, said he is unaware of any town in Illinois that has such an early curfew. If it works, "good luck to them," he said.

Russell "Tony" Stockon, 51, thinks the kids got a raw deal.

"We turned over outhouses. We took wagons apart and put the pieces on the schoolhouse roof," he said of his formative days in Palmer. "We did a lot more serious things. There are a lot of people in this town who forget they were kids."

Still, Stockon did not protest the curfew -- not after teenagers passed up the town basketball court's new lights and picnic tables and congregated at a dark pavilion where electrical equipment was damaged and graffiti etched in the wood.

"They brought it on themselves," he said.

His sons sheepishly agreed.

"He told us a couple of times to pick up trash and we didn't," said Dustin Stockon, 14. "He told us to stay out of the pavilion. But kids from out of town play basketball, and it's too crowded to sit there" under the light.

The curfew hasn't killed all the fun. Instead of going to the park, kids now wander around town before curfew and visit one another's homes afterward.

"That's kind of hard to police," the mayor admitted.

By JOHN O'CONNOR, Associated Press Writer

this is my favorite one. Not graffiti but just pure madness among the towns kids. ahahaha

these kids should just congregate one night all of them breaking the curfew in utmost protest, resisting arrest it would be awesome.

Good warning Jazzy. people drop WAY more information on the internet than they should, and then act surprised when the wrong people pick it up. However, as much as I love irony, you should probably edit out GK's personal info.

Wow, mentioning names and posting flicks can get you in trouble on the net?

You mean to say cops actually register here as members and look for incriminating information?

I never, ever, in a million years, would have thought that

::insert sarcasm here::