Cenotaph/Memorial Vandalism/Solutions-Laws (merged)

[paffomaybe]

I'd like to know what they do in Israel, China or Russia... life sentence anyone?

http://www.duihua.org/press/media/nytimes20060223.htm

Man Freed After Years in Jail for Mao Insult
By JIM YARDLEY
The New York Times
February 23, 2006

BEIJING, Feb. 22 — A Chinese journalist was freed Wednesday after spending nearly 17 years in prison for splattering paint on a portrait of Mao during the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, a family member and a human rights advocate said.

The journalist, Yu Dongyue, now 38, and two friends hurled eggs filled with red paint at the famous painting of Mao, which still stares at Tiananmen Square from across the street, where it hangs above the entrance to the Forbidden City. Mr. Yu and his family are expected to reunite in Hunan Province on Thursday, but his younger brother said the family was deeply concerned about Mr. Yu's mental health.

"He no longer recognizes me," said Yu Xiyue, the brother, who made a prison visit last year. In 2004, Reporters Without Borders, the journalism advocacy group, said Mr. Yu had gone insane as a result of torture in prison.

Human rights groups have long made Mr. Yu's release a priority. China once made it a practice to release a prominent prisoner in advance of an important state visit, and President Hu Jintao is to visit the United States in April.

But John Kamm, the human rights campaigner who long lobbied on behalf of Mr. Yu, stopped short of giving China credit for leniency. He said Mr. Yu's sentence, which was originally 20 years but was reduced twice, concluded on Tuesday.

"It's an early release only in the sense that he was originally sentenced to 20 years," said Mr. Kamm, whose San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation serves as an advocate for the release of Chinese political prisoners. "Frankly, I was hoping they would commute. In my opinion, this is a fairly minor gesture, if one at all."

Mr. Kamm said Mr. Yu's return to society would be tightly restricted, as is the case with all freed political prisoners. He will not have any political rights and will be forbidden to work at a university or any state-owned enterprise. He is also prohibited from speaking to news organizations.

"He will be, for the rest of his life, a targeted person," Mr. Kamm said.

Mr. Yu had worked as a reporter and art critic for Liuyang News, a local paper in Hunan. In 2004, Lu Decheng, one of the two friends arrested with Mr. Yu, visited him in prison and told Radio Free Asia that he was "barely recognizable."

Mr. Yu had "a totally dull look in his eyes, kept repeating words over and over as if he were chanting a mantra," Mr. Lu said, adding: "He had a big scar on the right side of his head. A fellow prisoner said Yu had been tied to an electricity pole and left out in the hot sun for several days. He was also kept in solitary confinement for two years, and that was what broke him."

Unlike Mr. Yu, both Mr. Lu and the third man, Yu Zhijian, were imprisoned but later paroled. Mr. Lu, who fled China in 2004, is now in Thailand awaiting final approval for resettlement in Canada, Mr. Kamm said. Yu Zhijian was reportedly rearrested this month as part of a police roundup of dissidents conducting a hunger strike.

(c) New York Times 2006

 

[orange.paint]

Interesting to see the punishment from China, but lets not even compare Yu Dongyue who was protesting for democracy to these idoits.Maybe since Mr Yu Dongyue wishes to come to Canada we can send our ***holes to China.Sort of a exchange program if you will.

 

[Jantor]

Nice.
And when working in one of the Peoples rice paddies, up to their hips in goo, they can go pee when ever they want

 

[mosquito]

The US never would have such a problem as there is a guard mounted on the tomb at all times.  Considering we pay for Skyhawks and Snowbirds, I don't see how a permanent guard could be considered a waste....

We live in Canada and should not have to worry about things like this or commit our precious few troops to a task such as this.  We should have a law with some teeth to deter people from such disrespectful and disgusting activities - no matter what mental condition they are in.  Lets attach some digger time and "visible" community service (like scrubbing down the entire monument" to crap like this and let the cops deal with a jerk like this. 

 

[big bad john]

I would not want to be any of these young men with the national exposure that this is getting.  It is the lead story in the Canada section of Google News this morning.

 

[Hockeycaper]

This act is absolutely disgusting. Once they are caught and charged they should be sent to a Veteran hospitals and allowed to speak to our vets and maybe they will begin to understand why this monument is so important to all of us, military and civilian. It is a sad day and my outlook on the youth of Canada becomes more and more depressing. Anyone looking for pictures, check out the Ottawa Sun web page as they have one really good picture. Also the Ottawa Citizen has it on the front page, but I am unable to open their web page...I am sure they will have more pictures.

 

[Remius]

http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp?cat=1&nid=40599

Other radio stations this morning have reported that people who know one or some of the individuals have come forward to identify them.(unconfirmed reports though)

God help them.

 

[Edward Campbell]

"Certainly my impression is it doesn't represent in any way the views of any segment of Canadian society," he said. "I think we all strongly honour our vets."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper on CFRA on Monday
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=243518cf-e8fc-4a2a-b11f-4bb4dfa7abf8&k=76055

With all respect to Prime Minister Harper and with no slight to any veteran, the National War Memorial is not about veterans: it is abut our war dead, who, by a legislative quirk are (mostly) not necessarily veterans.

The fact is that for most of the 20th century one became a ‘veteran’ by surviving the war plus having spent some time (often very little) in an operational zone or some such thing.  Most of our war dead ’failed’ the first test.

The rule may (should) have changed so that war widows, for example, are entitled to similar benefits which accrue to spouses of ‘normal’ veterans and which remain with veterans’ widows – that was not the case until as late as 2003.  The 21st century is starting to look rather like the 19th – featuring a series of small ‘wars’ rather than a few global conflagrations like 1914/18 and 1939/45.  It may well be that many – most? – CF members will be ‘veterans’ and some (hopefully few) of those veterans, still in uniform, will be killed in action.  They (their widows, anyway) ought, it seems to me, to ‘benefit’ from both the war-widow’s pension (still niggardly, I think) and any applicable survivor’s benefits coming from DVA.

All these were honoured in their generations, and were the glory of their time.
Ecclesiasticus 44:7

Nothing excuses this act but I think these young men, rather than most Army.ca members, are representative of our country - they are "the nation's faith, hope and future" as my first platoon sergeant used to (sadly and resignedly) refer to us fresh faced 18 year olds in woolly battle dress and pebbled boots.  Sadly, they are unlikely to benefit from the steady hand of men like him.

 

[cplcaldwell]

CF guard.

RCMP posted to the monument.

Ottawa Police should patrol.

Really.

Pretty sad actually, and a sad comment on Canadians. Off the thousands of people expressing outrage, snapping pictures and forwarding them to police, did it occur to any of these people, go grab the sonofabitch by the scruff and turf him out into the street

We have become a sad bunch, when even the War Memorial is considered someone else's business. I would suggest that if anyone within 100m of this silliness had any sense the matter would not require any referral to the police, except for perhaps an inquiry as to why a drunken man was found, covered in urine, penis in hand lying in the middle of Elgin Street with several contusions about the facial area.

 

[Kat Stevens]

Because this is Canada, and statue pissers caught dick handed have rights. :

 

[Hot Lips]

Because this is Canada, and statue pissers caught dick handed have rights. :

LMAO...omg Kat

Indeed, our laws do protect those that commit...that's why Carla Holmoka has a law degree and is bilingual

HL

 

[Shec]

As referenced above,  and for what its worth,  I vote "YES" to the idea of mounting a sentry over our tomb for the Unknown Soldier much like the Americans have at Arlington.   I would like to think it could be incorporated into the Changing of the Guard ceremony.

I take some small  comfort in the fact that, from the photo in the first post on this thread, it is probably dripping down onto the schmuck's feet.  And since that would physically soil the filthy pig I suggest that, if caught, he and his buddies be given a regimental shower.

I too agree with Cdn. Royal about making the culprits do community service at a Veteran's hospital. Cleaning the toilets and shining the bedpans at the Perley Rideau Veteran's Health Centre until the 90th anniversary of the end of WW1 would be just the ticket

 

[George Wallace]

More photos of different people in other papers:

The Ottawa Sun    http://www.ottawasun.com/

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2006/07/04/1666887-sun.html

War memorial now police 'priority'  http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=16119704-3246-4b29-95b8-90f931da50a0&k=97509

Still a hot topic in Ottawa media.

 

[geo]

from what I understand, we have "tons" of partly trained recruits in PAT platoons across the country at various bases, schools, units.

Use these guys,  quartered at the GGFG Cartier square armoury.

Heck, they're being paid to sit around..... give em something useful to do.... IMHO!

 

[Haggis]

Pretty sad actually, and a sad comment on Canadians. Off the thousands of people expressing outrage, snapping pictures and forwarding them to police, did it occur to any of these people, go grab the sonofabitch by the scruff and turf him out into the street

We have become a sad nation, when even the War Memorial is considered someone else's business. I would suggest that if anyone within 100m of this silliness had any sense the matter would not require any referral to the police, except for perhaps an inquiry as to why a drunken man was found, covered in urine, penis in hand lying in the middle of Elgin Street with several contusions about the facial area.

And the "citizens" who participated in this act of vigilante justice would face far harsher penalties and public condemnation than Pee Boy (and his fellow flaccid friends) will ever see.

 

[George Wallace]

from what I understand, we have "tons" of partly trained recruits in PAT platoons across the country at various bases, schools, units.

Use these guys,  quartered at the GGFG Cartier square armoury.

Heck, they're being paid to sit around..... give em something useful to do.... IMHO!

I seriously don't think that this would be very effective.  What degree of knowledge, discipline, and drill would these guys have?  In the majority of cases, except for OTs, not too much I would guess.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I seriously don't think that this would be very effective.  What degree of knowledge, discipline, and drill would these guys have?  In the majority of cases, except for OTs, not too much I would guess.

Precisely.

I still think those Walmart dudes in safety vests would be an adequate deterrent to minor acts of indecency.

George, interesting links, but why do the press insist on calling them "men"?

Now's the time for them to prove it. Holiday is over, plenty of opportunity to walk into the nearest police station, confess, and issue a public apology.

Kudos to the major, by the way, for getting those pics in the first place. That last one posted looked like the major even said something like "hey, turn around" to get a good full face shot.

And kudos to the press for giving this some well-appreciated attention.

 

[George Wallace]

George, interesting links, but why do the press insist on calling them "men"?

I think the answer to that is so as not to call them 'innocent children'.  These were 'young' men who should have known better and be held accountable for their actions.  If you take the War Memorial and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier out of the equation, we still have young men urinating in public. 

There were Blue Rockets in the near proximity of the War Memorial, up near Parliament Hill, and also a park with lots of bushes across the street from the Memorial.  These guys made a very poor choice, no matter how one looks at it.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Well, if by 6pm Ottawa time they've done the right thing and confessed, and an apology is forthcoming, I'll gladly bestow them that title.

Will be very embarrassing to hear they got turned in by their parents, on the other hand.

 

[GUNS]

They should be made to clean the Memorial with a toothbrush with Veterians standing watch on them.

It was great that the retired Major was there to catch them with his camera. He must not have been in the Combat Arm of the CF's.

If he was, he would have done more than take pictures.