BS: War Memorial Desecration

Subject: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 06:11 AM

Sorry to raise this here, but there's something I need to get off my chest. I walked into the gents of my local last night, and heard two characters giving out with racist and highly offensive diatribes about Muslims, in a manner I haven't had to suffer in years.

I have long since given up arguing with bigots and thickos but, before walking out in disgust I heard one of them complain about "some Paki" who'd been caught urinating on a war memorial in an unspecified locality. "And they let him off with it". (Presumably on lack of evidence).

War memorials seem to be a sitting target for every drunken yob who piles onto the street in need of a leak, and there are several reported instances of them being daubed with racist graffiti and swastikas. Plus, there have been various news stories about bronze plaques being pilfered from memorials.

However, as far as I know, none of these involved Muslims, and the people who carried them out were in all probability white indigenous British.

Have I missed something, or was last night's encounter just another instance of ignorance fuelling prejudice?

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: alanabit
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 07:09 AM

Probably. There have doubtless also occasionally been Pakistani yobs, who have done such things too, but like you, i would have my money on it that if it did happen, white Brits were probably responsible. And whenever I hear these racist prats ranting, I always bear in mind that some of the soldiers, who have fallen in recent years, were also from non-white British backgrounds.

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 08:32 AM

Yeah, they say that histroy repeats itself and this is the kind of intolerance that was witnessed by Hitler's "brownshirts" back in the 30s... Me thinks that it's way past time for national leaders to step to plate and "lead" people away from thinkin' that intolerance for other because of their religious belifes is not acceptable in this 21st century...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 10:12 AM

Bronze plaques are ofter stolen for their scrap metal value.

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 10:18 AM

It was a white British woman most recently in court for this offence. War memorials and in memoriam plaques suffer more from the metals thieves.

I think they should be fixed so people won't meddle with them. Don't whiz on the electric fence

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: olddude
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 10:21 AM

Nothing surprises me anymore. In out local cemetery there were bronze plaques with flags on them that read "soldier of the Revolution"
yup someone went around and stole them like Rap said is happening ...

not only steal but steal from the graves of Revolutionary war soldiers!!

wish I could get my hands on one of them .. please .. give me 5 minutes alone with one of those clowns

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 10:25 AM

Think it's time for folks to start talking about "personal responsibility" again... SWeem the only time we here that phrase is when some Congressperson has been caught doing what the preacherman said not to do but isn't used for other types of insensitive behaviors...

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 10:47 AM

olddude: "Nothing surprises me anymore. In out local cemetery there were bronze plaques with flags on them that read "soldier of the Revolution"
yup someone went around and stole them like Rap said is happening ...
not only steal but steal from the graves of Revolutionary war soldiers!!"

Hmmm, Given that mindset, who do you think would have done that?..someone leaning towards 'conservatism', or 'liberalism'???

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: Amergin
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 11:02 AM

Some one leaning to junkie-ism.....

There is a memorial here that honours the firefighters killed in the towers...and yep it was a bronze plaque...and yep some speed freak came along and stole it to support their disgusting habit.

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: olddude
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 11:13 AM

GFS
my guess a druggie who needed money for a fix ... you see we don't teach out kids morals or things like the 10 commandments anymore .. OH MY GOSH HE IS QUOTING RELIGION !!! .. yup I am .. when you have no moral fiber to build your life upon .. nothing is sacred except yourself .. so why would that surprise me they would steal from dead soldiers. Shit they shoot each other on the street because someone is wearing blue and it should be red bandanna...

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 11:45 AM

Having a rethink. If that plaque represents putting food on the table for your kids, does stealing it make it any less reprehensible?

Unfortunately some scrap metal dealers don't ask where the goods come from. And there are organised gangs that go out and steal metal, even electric cabling from train lines (putting people in grave danger) and the antenna from your car (which is merely annoying). These may not be drug addicts. But they may be unemployed people with kids to feed.

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: Amergin
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 12:22 PM

That's crap....they're soulless junkies (oh look a contradiction in terms)....some one who is trying to put food on their table will more than likely seek more legitimate avenues....even working at walmart or McDonalds.

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: olddude
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 12:31 PM

The ends do not justify the means ... I grew up poor and hungry right on the Appalachia border .. We never would think of stealing to make ends meet .. We worked to make ends meet ..

It is all about right and wrong .. that is what is missing today ..
like corporate executives use to have a duty to make decisions that were in the best interest of their employees and their investors .. today it is decisions that cook the books so they can line their pockets with bonus money ... even if the books are all smoke and mirrors and some investors lose their life savings .. I think they call it Greed .. It is why we are failing as a nation

Another good one was stealing the catalytic converters off of cars. My kid came home to visit, went back to Denver got in her car .. yup someone crawled under her car and cut off the converter. Why .. 300 bucks salvage .. that crime is everywhere today. Because it is easier to steal then to work and if one has no conscience .. then why not ..

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 12:40 PM

In the UK? There are no jobs here mate. not even in retail.

The soulless junkie is not likely to be organised enough to operate in the gangs that drive around in trucks and vans and "pull" scrap metal and drive to scrap yards to sell.

The market price of scrap aluminium and copper has risen exponentially in the last 5 years. It doubled between 2003 to 2006. (thanks China) Getting the dealers to stop buying the stolen stuff is a better way to stop the practice.

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: Paul Burke
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 12:49 PM

Two blokes have been charged with tearing the bronze plaques off Derby Railway War Memorial. Fortunately they were found and are repairable (the plaques, dunno about the men).

Trains are held up daily because people steal the signalling cable. A local church had the lead stolen from the roof just weeks after it had been repaired after a previous theft.

But I can't help feeling that the furore is really because the sacrifices of previous generations are used to sanctify modern imperialism by war. The government is already saying that criticism of the war is betrayal of "our boys".

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 12:53 PM

They desecrated a war memorial? Of course they did. They, whoever they are, have desecrated the memory of those who died for several generations now. A plaque is nothing compared to a soul. mg

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 09:10 PM

What I've found interesting, are the Soviet war memorials that are scattered around Eastern Europe. They're always pristine and undamaged - probably because people seem to stay away from them like the plague. They seem to be the most unpopular and most unpopulated places in Eastern Europe - but it appears that nobody would dare to do anything to desecrate them.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: Art Thieme
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 09:15 PM

Yes, history repeats. But it costs twice as much every time around.
Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: LadyJean
Date: 28 Aug 10 - 12:06 AM

There are people out there who think that just about anything is theirs to take. The folks who take all the lightbulbs out of a hotel room, steal the plants off of your front porch, and don't say anything when their kid comes home from school with a couple of new action figures.

They're sleazeballs, pure and simple

I am informed that there was a tank in the town square of some community in the Czech Republic. It was there to commemorate the country's liberation by the Soviet Union. But they had to move the tank indoors. It seems after the collapse of the U.S.S.R., locals kept slipping out at night and painting the thing pink!

Subject: RE: BS: War Memorial Desecration
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Aug 10 - 02:57 AM

Lady here was arrested for grand theft (a felony) when she was caught with USD 3,500.00 worth of flowers in her car -- in the cemetery where she had stolen them from graves.

She claimed they came from family graves but couldn't point out which ones. Then she said that the paper had reported that all the flowers and things were going to be cleaned away by the cemetery crews and she was just helping them out. That didn't fly either.

Finally she was plea bargained to misdemeanor charges of trespass and unlawful possession of property -- 90 days in jail, suspended.

The women was 67 years old.

In another case, two-inch-thick copper cable was cut off at ground level at a factory going in here. About 300 pounds (weight) of cable was taken -- this is solid copper, not twisted. So far as I know the thieves haven't been caught -- probably didn't sell it around here. The plant will make components for photovoltaic cells.

These aren't people with a family to feed -- they're people with a habit and it ain't eating. They're the ones who steal aluminum siding off of a house that's for sale, or break in and steal the appliances.

I have no sympathy for them.