By Ken Kolker / The Grand Rapids Press

On a brick wall outside Henry Paideia Academy, and on many other buildings around Grand Rapids, the battle lines are drawn with cans of spray paint.

It’s Meek vs. Ren.

To each other and their friends, they are known as prolific street artists, or writers.

To police who want to catch them, and business owners who spend thousands of dollars cleaning up after them, they are known as “taggers” or blight-causing vandals. They are not members of street gangs.

A Grand Rapids police officer who specializes in tagging said the taggers known as “Meek” and “Ren” have made the biggest marks in the city since the vandalism started in earnest last summer.

It appears they are competitors, with distinctive signatures and cartoon-like characters, who have commanded a following of at least 20 other taggers, said Community Police Officer Thomas Gootjes. They often hit the same buildings or highway supports, sometimes crossing out the other’s work.

Gootjes said police are working on leads to identify Meek and Ren. They are trying to determine whether their widespread work has turned them into leaders of two distinctive but loose-knit groups of taggers, he said. The five teens arrested by police Feb. 11 and Feb. 12 outside of a graffiti-covered building at 920 Cherry St. SE were members of the Notorious Bomb Crew, or NBC, Gootjes said.

He said the five — two adult students from Grand Rapids Christian High School, two 16-year-olds from East Grand Rapids High School and a 16-year-old from Byron Center High School — didn’t all necessarily know each other.

Police have identified the two adults as Dylan Hettinga, 17, and Benjamin Witte, 18. Family members for both refused comment.

Police would not release the juveniles’ names because they are minors, and juvenile court officials said they had not appeared in court. All five are charged or face charges of illegal entry, a misdemeanor.

Those involved call themselves “punkers.” They listen to punk rock and hang out at coffee shops, where they sometimes plan their tagging. They are a mixture of suburbanites and city dwellers. Some are high-schoolers, some are in college. Some could be artists.

“Given the right places, I think it would be art,” Gootjes said on Thursday as police led reporters on a tour of some of the graffiti, including at Henry Paidiea Academy, at Henry Avenue and Wealthy Street SE. It appears three or four taggers hit the school, including Meek and Ren.

The taggers have proliferated along the Wealthy Street SE corridor, from Eastown to the South Division area, he said. They have hit to the north in downtown, and along Plainfield Avenue NE, and south to Franklin Street SE. Some, including Meek, have struck as far away as Muskegon, he said.

They have their own Web site, where they post their artwork. The Web site, featuring “Grand Rapids Graffiti and Street Art,” went online in summer 2003 “as a way of documenting graffiti art in Grand Rapids,” the site states.

“We consider it outrageous that blank walls are considered better than walls covered in art, so we aim to document what we see so that it at least remains on display somewhere,” the site states.

Gootjes said the taggers usually work at night, then return to their urban canvasses to take photos, which they post on the Web site.

The city is taking the taggers seriously because of the damage they cause — not only to buildings and public property, but to the city’s image, said Lt. Ralph Mason. Visitors might think the graffiti is gang-related, he said.

Police said they hope publicity will lead parents, friends, even art teachers to turn in suspects.

Anyone with information is asked to call Silent Observer at 774-2345.