[logfromblammo]

If a tagger defaces a wall of your building, there are several things you can do about it.

  - ignore it
  - paint over the graffito
  - paint the entire wall
  - sandblast the graffito off
  - repaint the entire building
  - demolish the building and construct a new one, then paint it
  - abandon the building and move your business to a new city

Additionally, there are some things you can do to discourage future miscreants.

  - nothing
  - hire an artist, to make the original tagger feel inept and outclassed
  - point cameras at your walls
  - hire a guard to chase off taggers
  - coat your walls with a substance that prevents paint from adhering
  - build a wall around your walls, with razor wire
  - buy sentry guns with an AI tagging-detection system

And there are several ways to calculate damages.

  - declare that no damage occurred
  - cost of one bucket of paint
  - devaluation of the market value of the property
  - loss of business from customers that might have been scared off
  - loss of reputation among existing customers
  - research costs for a device that will erase the memory of the graffito
    from anyone that ever saw it
  - lobbying costs for new federal laws and regulations regarding tagging
  - cost of consultants capable of determining Banksy or not-Banksy

At some point, you step across the line where you can reasonably say that the expenditures were all due to one kid with a fat marker or spray-paint can.

Your costs might not stop at that line, but the amount you can claim as damages would.

[tptacek]

You've lost me. Nothing a tagger does to your wall is going to cost you $20,000, and the tagger doesn't set out with the objective of totally destroying your wall, failing only because their accomplices refuse to do that.