Only On 9: Venice Residents Upset By Security Video Showing Vandals Wrecking Mural

VENICE (CBSLA.com) —  Venice residents were upset when a mural in their neighborhood got vandalized.

They really got upset when security video of the taggers appeared on social media.

"It's juvenile and idiotic," says Isaac Depyer.

He told KCAL9's Jeff Nyguen that the vandals earned the ire of the neighborhood.

The video shows a group of young men vandalizing the long-standing mural that's right off what's been dubbed by GQ magazine as "the coolest street in America," Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice.

"All that effort just to destroy something that was already beautiful and fantastic," said Depyer.

Cameras caught the vandals spray-painting over the mural late Wednesday night and then returning early Thursday morning to tag it again.

The video shows cars driving by while the mural came under attack.

Actor/director Paul Michael Glaser, most known for starring in the '70s smash TV show "Starsky & Hutch," lives in the neighborhood.

"It's so sad; it's ridiculous. People have no respect for other people's property," says Glaser.

The mural was commissioned 15 years ago. The artists who created it are Hashim Thomas and Chase.

The later painter has done about 30 murals in Venice.

Nguyen was there when he met one couple who came all the way from Newport Beach to get a picture taken with the mural.

"Whenever I sit here, I notice people looking at the mural, taking photos in front of it," said Sara Hughes who works nearby.

While Depyer doesn't like what the taggers did to the mural, he sees a bright side.

"If you look at how consistent the arches are," he says, admiring a little the tagger's artistic merit.

But he said the people the mural attack lack any credibility after they assaulted someone else's creation.

"This is just going draw the community to really dislike them. They're working in reverse of what they're attempting to do. So it's just stupid," Depyer said.

One of the mural's artists says he got his start tagging and in the world of graffiti it is an unspoken rule to never tag over someone else's work.