KEY POINTS:
They're spat and cursed at, challenged to fights, shot at with air rifles and have even had their families threatened.
But workers at the Manukau Beautification Trust, who are tasked with removing the endless mish-mash of tags throughout South Auckland, say intimidation is just a part of the
job.
Every day of the week the trust's workers are out on Manukau's streets cleaning up - their goal is to have graffiti cleared within 24 hours.
But not everyone appreciates their contribution and the trust's chairman, the Reverend Mark Beale, said some of the abuse hurled at workers was "particularly worrying".
One crew member, who preferred to be known only as "Andrew", said he had been threatened more than once while painting over tags in his four years in the job.
"You get plenty of that. Some try to stand over you but we just say we're doing a good thing for our community and our goal is to always leave the scene better than we found it."
The former youth worker, 39, thought there were at least 400 "crews", which typically number a handful of taggers, in action throughout South Auckland.
Things have been exacerbated by crews joining forces making some of them as large as 100 members or more and cliques tagging in their rivals patches.
"Once they join together you know there could be hundreds in a crew. Often they will put all the initials of their crew's names in their tag, this is what makes it difficult for police to make arrests."
Mr Beale said feelings against graffiti had grown so strong that the recent stabbing of 15-year-old Pihema Cameron for tagging a property was possibly "something any one of us could have done".
"People are saying to me if I could catch them I would wring their necks ... I really can appreciate the frustration as most people feel like there's no headway being made into the issue."
Mr Beale criticised the government for a slow response to the problem.
By the time the anti-tagging bill goes back to Parliament late next month, he said the trust would probably have painted over at least 30,000 tags throughout South Auckland.
He said nothing was sacred to taggers - the sign outside his church on Finlayson Ave advising of worship times has been a graffiti canvas more than once.
The trust's workers also needed to be up early every Anzac Day - to ensure cenotaphs and statues were not defaced in the lead up to the day's ceremonies.
"Could you imagine your grandparents waking up to see the front of their home completely covered in graffiti? I've seen it happen."
Mr Beale also said American "gangsta" culture had imported the "very worst type of culture" into the country.
"I think it's a tragedy. We have our own Maori and Pacific Islands cultures which are magnificent and I think we should be proud of them but we have adopted the very worst of this gangsta culture."
To help combat the scourge, the trust keeps a database of all the tags it removes to help with police prosecutions. It has also set up an educational response at schools in Manukau.
"The whole idea of it is trying to instil a sense of pride, respect and responsibility in their community," he said.
Len Brown, Manukau mayor, said there were plans to double the trust's resources and funds through matching contributions from government agencies and businesses.
