More vandalism - why is it happening?

[marlin teat]

While this is not strictly a C.W. related item, it does relate to a recent upswing in vandalism to historic sites. This cemetery contains the remains of several hunderate Confederate soldiers as well as some unknown Federal soldiers and the official National Tomb of the Known soldier. One of the tombstones that was demolished wasn't in the C.S. section but it belonged to a C.S. officer of Co.A, 8th Ga. (Rome Light Guards) who was killed at First Manassas. Perhaps some of you have seen his hardpack in the M.O.C. marked R.L.G.

The cemetery is over 150 years old and contains the known interrments of over 12,000 citizens. In addition there are many older, unmarked graves including that if "Uncle Steve" Eberhart, a Black C.S. Veteran.

The lastest police reports indicate that several adults took several hours and special tools to do the damage. Motive is unknown.

This is reprinted with permission of the Rome News-Tribune

A grave situation


Vandals cause possibly as much as $100,000 damage to dozens of grave sites at Myrtle Hill.
05/22/04
By Marie Niesse, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer




Rome cemetery director Stan Rogers looks over damage to the graves of the late first lady Ellen Louise Axson Wilson and her family Friday. William T. Martin / Rome News-Tribune Vandals ripped through Myrtle Hill Cemetery late Thursday or early Friday, causing at least an estimated $80,000 in damage to what many Romans consider a hallowed landmark.

Jim Dixon, assistant city manager, said roughly 70 monuments were vandalized. Several markers were tipped over and some were broken, police said.

A ramshackle path of fallen, broken and shattered monuments coursed throughout the section of the cemetery adjacent to the Coosa Country Club and city officials looked upon the littered gravestones with grim faces.

Dixon said damage to the cemetery, which has served the community as a final resting place for about a century and a half, could cost as much as $100,000.

While police said they had no suspects, they speculated that a group of strong adults used sheer force to tip over the monuments during a period of several hours.

“This is the most extensive damage I’ve ever seen,” said Stan Rogers, city cemetery director, who surveyed the damage Friday af

A figurine is ripped from its place, but flags remain untouched at the graves of two World War II veterans. William T. Martin / Rome News-Tribune ternoon along with public works officials and police after a guard reported the mayhem.

“We’ve had markers tipped over in the past, and paint sprayed on the mausoleum, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Rogers said.

Rich Hoffman, who was visiting Myrtle Hill, shared Rogers’ disbelief. “Everything’s always been in great shape before,” he said. “It’s such a shame to have this happen all over the place.”

Kirk Milam, Rome’s public works director, said most of the restoration costs will be covered by the city, but the full extent of the damages and the degree to which the owners of damaged

(From left) Rome Public Works director Kirk Milam, cemetery director Stan Rogers and assistant Public Works director Jamie McCord tour the destruction Friday. William T. Martin / Rome News-Tribune lots will be involved has yet to be determined.

Rogers said some of the restoration would be particularly difficult because the damaged sculptures were not made with the same marble that is in use today.

He said the damage appeared to be random.

Among the damages, Milam said, were monuments at the site of Ellen Louise Axson Wilson’s grave site. She was a native Roman and the first wife of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. A walkway to the plot was also damaged, he said.

The Rev. Warren Jones, a cemetery tour guide and history advocate of Ellen Wilson, said such damages were horrible. “It’s nothing but pure vandalism. There’s nothing to gain from damaging a grave site,” he said. “I’m very distressed about it.”

The Confederate section of the cemetery and the Veterans Plaza appeared to be undamaged, Milam added.

“Rogers will go out there tomorrow and do a more thorough evaluation of the damages,” Milam said Friday.

Dixon said more details would be available Monday and a full inventory of the damage will be collected.

Sgt. Jon Black of the Rome Police Department said anyone suspected of damages at Myrtle Hill could be charged with second-degree criminal damage to property, which is a felony and carries a penalty of one to five years for each headstone damaged.

Myrtle Hill Cemetery sits on 31.8 acres, where more than 12,000 bodies are at rest. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Rogers said the damages would not impede the annual Memorial Day parade that is slated for Monday.

[13thnhv]

Re: More vandalism - why is it happening?

In Boston, a couple of years ago, two homeless men were caught in the act of desecrating a cemetery in a similar fashion. They were not errant teens.........one of them was in his 50s. Just a couple of weeks ago, also in Boston, a massive sculpture of a Union soldier, weighing 1000 pounds, was toppled from a tall pedestal in the Public Gardens and was broken into 3 pieces. No suspects yet.

I lived in Germany for 5 years, about 20 years ago. I quickly learned that some societal restrictions placed on its citizens, from birth on, tended to keep people in a more respectful frame of mind, and the liberties that we take for granted, here in the U.S., somehow enable some people to act out in any way they see fit. Not that similar acts of stupidity don't happen there, but at least at that time, you could legally consume alcohol at 16, but not drive a car until 18. Respect for alcohol and the road were therefore ingrained in young people with results not found here. I would never trade my life here in the U.S. for anyplace else, but I have had some exposure to how life can be elsewhere, in a civilized society.

So, you ask how all this could happen, and I say that people are not held accountable enough for their actions, do not hold themselves accountable, and the laws do not work, from front to back. If the penalties were enforced for such barbaric acts, that may have an effect.

There are also some middle school males here in my town who could flip a truck over if asked to, so it didn't necessarily have to be adults who did this. It is very sad and disturbing to hear about stories like this. There is an eroding sense of decency which is not turning around by any means. The values of my Depression era/WWII era and baby boom era parents are just plain gone these days. On second thought, maybe even the prospect of stiff punishment for an act such as this would not deter the morons who perpetrated it. They Just. Don't. Care.

[DougCooper]

Re: More vandalism - why is it happening?

I don't have a clue as to why some idiots would do this, except all the standard "on a dare or a bet" or reasons of simple anti-social behavior, other than increased security and sharp pointed high fences, what can we do?

Marlin: How are they going to pay for the damage? Insurance?

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: More vandalism - why is it happening?

Every generation has had its vandals (even before the the Vandals) Who knows why they do it, but it is such a shame when they do what they do. There is a movement right now to restore "The Pioneer Cemetary" in the town I grew up in. It was almost totally destroyed by teenagers in the 1950s.

[Matthew.Rector]

Re: More vandalism - why is it happening?

Robert is right, every generation has these idiots.
That includes Civil War soldiers vandalizing cemeteries during the War. I don't own the book to cite the pages, but doesn't Robert Sneden talk about this in his published diary Eye of the Storm ? In fact, I think he complains about soldiers looting graves and what not then turns around and uses a baby's skull as a soap dish.
There are also the gravestones in Savannah that supposidly occupying soldiers switched around and added extra numerals to.

I also agree...penalties are not enforced enough when it comes to these crimes. Its a shame that it has to happen in the first place. Keep us updated Marlin.

[marlin teat]

Re: More vandalism - why is it happening?

I don't have a clue as to why some idiots would do this, except all the standard "on a dare or a bet" or reasons of simple anti-social behavior, other than increased security and sharp pointed high fences, what can we do?

Marlin: How are they going to pay for the damage? Insurance?

Unfortunately the cost of repairing the damages is going to fall first on the descendents of the deceased. As the cemetery is so old, many of the families can’t be found so the repairs are going to be handled by a coalition of volunteers under the direction of the Rome-Floyd parks department. As a result a sizeable portion of the funds that were going to be used for the restoration of Fort Norton /Jackson (http://www.romegeorgia.com/fortnortonjackson.htm ) are going to have to be diverted. This restoration of what General Jefferson C. Davis referred to as the most heavily fortified position he saw in the South had recently been put on the front burner but the project will now be postponed indefinitely due to the diversion of funds.

Incidentally, the hill on which Myrtle Hill Cemetery is located was also the location of one of the forts that protected Rome and as recently as this year an unexploded Hotchkiss shell was recovered while digging a new grave.

It is also the location of the battle in 1792 between Gen. Sevier and Kingfisher of the Creek Nation in which the latter was killed.

So as you can see there is a lot of history involved.

The latest theory is that the vandalism may have been gang related.

[hiplainsyank]

Re: More vandalism - why is it happening?

Sadly, some kids when I was in high school got in trouble for knocking over gravemarkers back in the 80s. It was hard for me to believe that the one kid was involved, because the one I knew didn't seem like that kind of kid. But you add booze/drugs, or maybe mental illness (in the case of the Boston homeless man?), no one cares.

A few years ago a township cemetery a couple miles from where I grew up in Ohio had some unknown parties tip some gravestones. This is a pretty old cemetery, with many Civil Wat vets, and even some War of 1812 vets. One of the 1812 vets there is Mordecai Lincoln, yep, a great uncle (as I recall) of Abraham. I do believe his stone was knocked over, too, if I remember correctly.

The strange thing is that because of the vandalism, they "rediscovered" his gravestone. At least some small good happened from it.

At the same time, so much of our society knows so little about our history. All you have to do is watch "Jaywalking" on Jay Leno to know that.

Joanna Norris Grimshaw

[Michael Comer]

Re: More vandalism - why is it happening?

These are stupid, mindless acts and I have never been able to fathom the mindset of people who do this stuff. I do think there is an overall decline in values, standards and respect for authority that contributes to what seems to be an increase in this kind of activity. Some time ago Beyonce did a televised concert in front of Grant's tomb which has been a target for vandals for quite some time I believe. In my mind that' s not a very respectful thing to do I think and those images may result in a further lack of respect for such places in some folks mind. I think people just don't care that much anymore.

I stopped at Chickamauga on my way home from Pickett's Mill. There were tons of people jogging and riding bicycles through the battlefield. There' s nothing wrong with that in itself, but I wondered as I saw all these folks - do they just view the park as a good place to exercise or something more. Do they ever think about what happened where they are riding their bikes? Do they ever reflect on the terror, pain and human misery that happened right where they run? Do they ever reflect on why these men made the sacrifices they did. It's pretty obvious that a lot of people do not hence we have the constant threats to our battlefields by development. If the "good" people in society don't think about our historic places and other places due respect such as cemeteries then how can we expect the "bad" people to.

Harsher penalties might help curtail some of this stuff but there will always be the idiots that are impossible. I'm reminded of a story about some city park maintenance workers in St. Louis who grew tired of cleaning up and repairing the damage done by repeated acts of vandalism at the same place. The vandals evidently had a pattern so the maintenance guys lay in wait one night and beat the crap out of them when they started doing their thing. The vandalism rate dropped significantly after that.

Just some thoughts for what they're worth.