07:17 PM CST on Thursday, December 22, 2005

By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas Police on Thursday arrested six graffiti artists accused of causing more than $100,000 in property damage.

Two of the suspected graffiti artists, who police said go by monikers like “rewd” and “soler,” appear to have samples of their work posted on dallaspolice.com, a Web site that features graffiti art and clearly is intended to poke fun at law enforcement.

“It’s very much an arrogant in-your-face kind of statement,” said Dallas Police David Kunkle of the Web site. “They have a lack of respect for the community.”

About 6 a.m., nearly 30 officers fanned out across the city to find 10 people who were wanted on arrest warrants. Police located five men and one juvenile, and continue to look for the rest.

“We wanted to make a statement today,” said Chief Kunkle, who accompanied officers on the round-up. “We’ve asked the district attorney not to plea bargain any of these cases.”

He said he also is encouraging citizens to consider filing civil suits against graffiti artists.

Police aren’t sure who currently operates the dallaspolice.com site. But there are monikers for what appears to be more than 400 different artists, who have posted slide shows of their work.

“They’re proud of it,” said Senior Cpl. Max Geron, a police spokesman.

One of the arrested suspects, Anthony Gambino, 22, goes by the nickname “Soler,” police said.

On dallaspolice.com, an artist named “Soler” has posted a slide show of more than 50 pictures of colorful stick figures spray painted on the sides of walls, buildings and even on billboards.

Dallas police also arrested the following individuals on graffiti charges: James Stevenson, 19; Jorge Mendez, 19; Edward Hernandez, 20; Dakota Wolf, 18, and a 16-year-old juvenile.

Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Hernandez, Mr. Wolf and the juvenile were all accused of a class B misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to six months in jail and up to $2,000 in fines.

Mr. Gambino and Mr. Mendez face a state jail felony charge, punishable by up two years in jail and up to $10,000 in fines.

E-mail teiserer@dallasnews.com