Dewitt Park monuments vandalized
By Raymond Drumsta
Journal Staff
ITHACA — Racial slurs, drug and gang graffiti, curses and obscene drawings were
found scrawled on the Dewitt Park war memorials Friday night, accelerating
routine pre-ceremony clean-up plans and casting an ugly pall over Veterans Day.
The graffiti covered the marble facades of the WWI memorial, and appeared to
have been written with black marker. Among a slew of obscenities, caricatures of
male genitalia and drawings of marijuana leaves was a curse to the “crips and
the bloods,” two Los Angeles-based street gangs, and cryptic threats and insults
to “Kevin Chambliss.”
On the WWII memorial, the names “Heather G.” and “Ashley R.” were written across
the names of the honored dead in neat, outsize print.
A Veterans Day Ceremony, sponsored by the Tompkins County Veterans Day
Committee, is scheduled for 11 a.m. today in the park.
The Vietnam Veterans of America usually clean up the park for the Veterans Day
Ceremony, said Vietnam veteran and organization member George Pierro.
“This isn't the first time it's happened, but it seems like the worst time, from
what I've been told. This is going to be a lot harder to clean up,” Pierro said,
adding that in the past people had used the back of the WWI memorial as a
latrine.
On Friday night, Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson said she had ordered the
Department of Public Works to assist in the clean-up Saturday morning.
“Vandalism is not acceptable anywhere in the city, and hate graffiti is not
acceptable either,” she said. “We're working to find out who has done this.”
A passer-by in the park Friday night expressed disgust.
“It's tragic, but it's not the first time,” the man said, adding that he has
seen graffiti made with black marker all over the park.
Veterans work hard to keep up the park and this latest graffiti incident, coming
on the eve of Veterans Day, is especially poignant, the man said.
“They gave up their tomorrows so we can have today,” the man said.
rdrumsta@ithacajournal.com
Originally published November 11, 2006