Arrest over Derby war memorial plaques

August 7, 2010

UK--"The plaques contained the names of hundreds of railway workers who lost their lives in World War I.

The incident was reported to police on Wednesday morning and two plaques were recovered immediately and others were found later under a bush.

A 30-year-old man has been questioned by police and bailed pending further inquiries." original text

From the BBC, and by an unknown author.

Thieves steal bronze plaques from Derby war memorial

August 5, 2010

UK--"Thieves took the plaques, which contain the names of thousands of men who died in World War I, from a memorial close to Derby station.

It honours employees of the Midland Railway who enlisted and died in the war.

The memorial in Derby's Midland Road is Grade II-listed and was built in 1921..." read more

From the BBC, and by an unknown author.

War memorials deserve special protection

August 24, 2010

UK--"Few actions are calculated to cause greater offence than the desecration of a war memorial. The 'guard of dishonour' formed by Army veterans outside a courthouse for Wendy Lewis, who urinated on a memorial in Blackpool, was a fitting show of national disgust for her actions – such an exquisite humiliation that it should, one trusts, haunt the culprit for the rest of her life. Perhaps that is punishment enough. But should we go further and have a specific crime of defacing a war memorial that better reflects the strength of public revulsion and which carries a condign penalty?

David Burrowes, the Tory MP for Enfield Southgate, thinks we should. He has written to Cabinet ministers arguing that existing laws are insufficiently robust for this particular offence. If a war memorial is damaged, it receives no greater protection than any other edifice: the cost is assessed purely in financial terms, not for what the monument symbolises. Unless the bill for repairs exceeds £5,000, the maximum sentence that the magistrates court can hand down is three months in prison.

Mr Burrowes wants desecrating a war memorial to be a specific crime carrying a prison term of up to 10 years..." read more

From Telegraph.co.uk, and by Philip Johnston.

Coombe Hill Monument to be refurbished

July 29, 2010

UK--" Work has begun to bring a war memorial back to its former glory after the elements have taken their toll.
The monument at the top of Coombe Hill near Wendover remembers Buckinghamshire soldiers who fought in the South African Boer War from 1899 to 1902..." read more

From Bucks Free Press & Times Group, and by Rebecca Cain.

On-duty cop caught on video stealing from Pat's Cafe

July 29, 2010

Philadelphia, PA--"Pat's Cafe, a tiny corner bar in the Lower Northeast, is regarded as something of a sacred space by local residents and men and women in blue.

It is the place where Officer Gary Skerski, a beloved community-relations cop, lost his life when he interrupted an armed robbery on a warm spring night four years ago. An old wreath, a pair of decaying roses and a few small candles still mark the spot outside the bar, at Castor Avenue and Arrott Street, where Skerski was gunned down.

Imagine, then, how cops and locals felt yesterday when word spread that an on-duty police officer stole money from the bar's safe early Tuesday, law-enforcement sources said..." read more

From Philadelphia Daily News, and by David Gambacorta.