Who does this kind of thing?
The Lincoln Memorial was shut down Friday after vandals splattered the base of the statue with green paint.
From CNN:
Vandals splashed green paint on the base of the Lincoln Memorial’s statue overnight, prompting officials to temporarily close the marble fixture on Washington’s National Mall, authorities said.
Police were alerted just before 1:30 a.m. and found paint splattered on the leg and base of the 19-foot-tall statue of Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Park Police Capt. Steven Booker told CNN Friday. There were no discernible letters or markings.
The memorial will be closed until it is cleaned up, Booker said. A timeframe was not given.
Photo: AP
Captain Booker said that the act “appears intentional based off of the splatter,” according to MyFOX DC.
As others, like the NY Times, have noted for some time, vandalism in our national parks and memorials seems to be a growing trend these days. Sites such as the Joshua Tree National Park in California, Saguaro National Park in Arizona, and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, among others, have all been the recent targets of such damage.
There has been much speculation that vandals’ propensity to achieve social media “fame” fuels some of these kinds of acts, but in some cases, the culprits’ own social media postings have instead helped to catch them.
From the NY Times:
At El Morro National Monument in New Mexico in 2011, two South Korean exchange students added their own contributions to Inscription Rock, a treasured panel where 19th-century soldiers and pioneers etched their names. One wrote “Super Duper Dana,” the other, “Gabriel.”
Rangers later checked the visitor center sign-in book and saw the name “Dana Choi” followed by the comment “Super Duper Dana Choi.” Ms. Choi and another student, Seung Hoon Oh, later posted pictures of their trip on their Facebook pages. When contacted by park officials, they also admitted their acts, eventually pleading guilty to violation of a federal law protecting archaeological resources. They were fined nearly $15,000 each.
It’s not yet known who vandalized the Lincoln Memorial or why, but it’s certainly disheartening to see such disrespect for a cherished symbol of our nation’s history.
UPDATE 7/26/2013 at 1:30pm EDT: Main portico space reopened, but the chamber area (where the statue sits) remains closed as crews continue to remove the paint.
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Comments
so.. I have a better security camera system on my house than the Parks Service has at the Lincoln Memorial? Because it only took me an hour to hand over photos of the neighbors kids who egged my house to the police department. I might have ignored it and hosed down the garage if it hadn’t been for the broken car windows.
Nasty but negligible next to the vandalism of our Constitutional principles at every level of our lives and through every reach of our government.
The worst is yet to come. We’re creeping toward a breakdown and attendant savagery that will make the relative “incivility” of these days seem halcyonic.
So you’ve answered the question why DHS has been stockpiling 1.5B bullets.
“Police were alerted just before 1:30 a.m. and found paint splattered on the leg and base of the 19-foot-tall statue of Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Park Police Capt. Steven Booker told CNN Friday. There were no discernible letters or markings.”
Have the Park Police checked where Barry was at that time?
It’s not vandalism that shut down the Lincoln Memorial; it’s the typical overreaction by the powers that be. We’ve all seen major highways closed for hours while police investigate the accident. Clear the wreckage, re-open the highway and clean the memorial while visitors watch.
The vandalism itself is to be expected when memorials are built to honor greedy, racist, slave-owning, corporatist blood sucking Americans. As Rev. Wright preached: ‘America’s chickens have come home to roost’
You’re accusing -Abraham Lincoln- of owning slaves?
Either this is intended as sarcasm that fell flat or you’ve got one serious burden of proof to provide.
Well, it seems to me that we, as a nation, have elected Obama twice so that he may fundamentally change our nation. He believes that we citizens are racist, that our founding fathers were racist, and that capitalism is unfair to its roots. Obama believes that the constitution is defective and should have established positive rights for our government and not the negative rights that protect the individual.
Obama believes in the rule-of-men as opposed to the rule-of-law to such an extent that he ignores the Supreme Court and Congress and pretty much does as he pleases. Our Supreme Court and our Congress have demonstrated through their inactions that they agree with Obama.
Finally, we as a nation have taken no steps to put Obama on notice that his behavior is not in accordance with our founding principles. We too, imply that we agree with Obama.
Those who agree with and actively support Obama, feel fully justified in denigrating and belittling the symbols of America’s greatness and of its past. Our acquiescence in the government’s assertion of control over every aspect of our lives reinforces this aberrant belief.
This is our nation, Obama is our President, and it is our chickens that are coming home to roost.
A few years back my family visited the Lincoln Memorial, based on our experience this does not surprise me one bit. A teenage punk with a school group ran behind Abe, jumped up on the back then flipped over and landed on his lap. There must have been a hundred people all standing there gasping in horror. The Park Police grabbed him quickly and informed his teachers he wasn’t going any place soon. It was amazing to see how little respect this kid had, and horrifying too.
Anybody else notice that that just happens to be the shade of green favored by Islam?
And John Deere, Guinness Ale, Starbuck’s, Heineken, Tropicana, and Land Rover, too.
Hmm, I wonder if there’s a conspiracy here? Of course, there needn’t be an actual conspiracy to create conspiracy theories.
Henry, don’t forget the Irish Republican Army.
While it’s true that Muslims have a bad habit of vandalizing things in Europe, there’s not enough evidence here.
As long as we are speculating, I’d lean toward the “Green Party” communists. Or some eco terrorists. But in Iran the “Greens” were the good party, trying to fight Ahmadinnajacket (I refuse to learn to spell his name lol).
yeah … we can tap everyone’s phone and email and who knows what else, but security at monuments is too hard? Millions for drunk IRS parties, but lets not catch vandals that no doubt have every right to be angry at their lot in life in America. sheesh
We have tech that could have not only spotted him, but yelled at him before the paint was thrown, telling him the jail sentence he was facing, and that cops would be awaiting him.
“Before you throw that, realize you will face a year in jail and a $10,000 fine. Or you can stop now and receive a warning. Your choice.”
could have kept it open, may have shocked people into acting smarter.
people who visit can still visit while paint is being removed.
Mandy, they don’t need a reason. “Because it’s fun” is enough for them.
Several years ago our historical society acquired an ancient warehouse, built with pegs instead of nails. We moved it to a new site and were in the middle of renovating it when two local kids burned it to the ground. Their explanation? They were bored.
Wooden pegs is an ancient method still in use in Russian wooden churches for example. What era would this building have been & who by? Sounds very Mad Maxian.
I am interested in all things archeological . I am thinking we need a new term Pre Detroit & Post Detroit to describe the ( coming) devolution .
Green paint? Could be some drunken, crazed enviro-whackos.
In a free country, this sort of behavior would be conspicuous only in its absence.
Rust-Oleum ought to donate a couple cases of NeverWet to the Park Service, in case it happens again.
http://www.neverwet.com/index.php