Veteran Memorials in Three StatesVandalized
"It's a desecration."
5.29.2016
35
Memorials to veterans in three different states across the country were vandalized as the nation entered the Memorial Day holiday weekend, according to Fox News.
Sometime during the past week, a Vietnam War memorial in the Venice area of Los Angeles was extensively defaced by graffiti, as you can see above. The homespun memorial painted on a block-long wall on Pacific Avenue lists the names of American service members missing in action or otherwise unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. Painted by a Vietnam veteran and dedicated in 1992, it declares, "You are not forgotten" and states the number of missing as 2,273 (according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the number of unaccounted-for Americans was listed at 2,646 in 1973).
To George Francisco, vice president of the Venice Chamber of Commerce, it's not just graffiti. "It's a desecration. I mean it's very simple. There's no sort of other way around it, said Francisco, who also runs a nonprofit called Veterans Foundation Inc.
"I've known the sacrifices these people made in an incredibly unpopular war. So to continue the mistreatment of Vietnam veterans is somewhat shocking, somewhat shocking and quite sad," Francisco said.
On Saturday morning in Henderson, Kentucky, about 130 miles west of Louisville, 27-year-old local man Anthony Burrus drove straight through a Memorial Day cross display there that honors the names of 5,000 veterans of conflicts dating back to the Revolutionary War. He has been charged with criminal mischief in the first degree and leaving the scene of an accident.
Jennifer Richmond, a spokesman for the Henderson Police Department, said the community is devastated and working frantically to repair and replace the crosses that were put on display for a Memorial Day ceremony in Central Park.
In Virginia, the Petersburg National Battlefield has apparently has been looted. Numerous excavations were found at the Civil War battlefield last week. Petersburg National Battlefield is a 2,700-acre park marks where more than 1,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died fighting during the Siege of Petersburg 151 years ago.
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