An upcoming public meeting in Tusket, Yarmouth County to discuss vandalism in that village is the latest in a series of sessions in the county held to air concerns about vandalism.

Wedgeport too has been rocked with incidents in recent months that have prompted citizens to voice their concerns en masse.

There are several problems with vandalism.

Besides the immediate problems and costs it creates for those targeted, it also has a tendency, when unchecked, to grow. And with that growth often comes retaliation. Generally in smaller places like Tusket or Wedgeport, it doesn’t take long for the rest of the residents to figure out who the guilty parties are.

The problem lies in that it isn’t as easy for the police and later the court to zero in on the culprits.

There is, afterall, a difference between knowing something and proving something.

In the Tusket area there have been broken windows, property damage and gasoline theft. On the face of it not what you’d call big time crime. But the tendency is often for smaller incidents to escalate not only in frequency, but in target.

We have seen that in Wedgeport. And in that village we have also seen the potential for things to get well under hand.

Villages that are hit by vandals often quickly run short of patience. They want, and expect, police protection and they want and expect the problems to end. If that entails dragging the vandals to court so be it.

There comes a point when the relatively minor inconveniences of vandalism become major irritants.

Meetings such as the one set for Jan. 22 present an opportunity for the public to speak out and to express their concerns with the hope that something more will be done to curb what’s going on before it gets truly out of hand.

We’ve already seen too much of this sort of thing in Yarmouth County.