Eschew Obfuscation: Crosses of Lafayette: Vandals Tarred by their own Brush

Chronicle / Jakub Mosur

Christopher Heredia and Marisa Lagos filed this report in the San Francisco Chronicle about the vandalism to the crosses in Lafayette:

LAFAYETTE
Sign in controversial Iraq war memorial is vandalized overnight

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Nighttime vandals late Tuesday or early Wednesday defaced the sign accompanying crosses planted on a Lafayette hillside as a memorial to American soldiers slain in Iraq.

Police said it appeared the culprits used black tar to paint over the sign's message, which had read, "In Memory of 2,867 Troops Killed in Iraq."

The hillside memorial, on Deer Hill Road overlooking the Lafayette BART Station and Highway 24, sparked controversy soon after it was placed there in early November, with supporters arguing it honors the troops in Iraq while also underscoring the war's toll, and opponents saying it disrespects men and women in uniform.

Michael E. Kerr, a Bay Point handyman who helped build some of the crosses, was at the memorial Wednesday afternoon surveying the damage, picking up trash and making plans to replace the sign.

"It's pretty nasty," said Kerr, 57. "I don't know what makes them so upset. They don't want the public to know the number of soldiers who have died in this war."

The memorial features hundreds of white wooden crosses -- many of which have been adorned with U.S. flags, Stars of David, holiday wreaths and poinsettias -- though the sign has been a lightning rod for criticism and was vandalized once before, when a woman knocked it over.

The City Council is studying whether the sign's size violates city rules and should be removed. Last month, scores of citizens packed a council meeting and passionately debated the crosses during a 2 1/2-hour public hearing, with most supporting the memorial and a few opposing it.

"They ought to take it down," said Cathy Smith, a 49-year-old mail clerk from Lafayette, while waiting for a bus at the Lafayette BART Station Wednesday. "It doesn't look very good. It looks like a cemetery. People are getting tired of it. It's probably upsetting a lot of people."

Lafayette Police Chief Mike Fisher said a taxi driver called police Wednesday morning alerting them that the sign had again been vandalized.

Fisher said police officers' hands have been tied in both cases of vandalism because property owner Louise Clark has not officially reported them.

"We know who (the first vandal) is, but the property owners have never done anything to report it to us," he said. "We were documenting (the most recent vandalism), of course, today, but we're unlikely to find someone. ... Until the victims, the property owners, contact us, we don't have a victim. You need a victim to have a crime."

Councilman Brandt Andersson said he hopes police find out who defaced the sign so they can be punished. The legality of the sign's size aside, Andersson said he supports the message the memorial delivers.

"I sympathize with the people who put the memorial out," he said. "People ought to be thinking about these deaths more than most of us do day to day."

Kerr said, "Not much attention is being paid to the sacrifices being made by the soldiers in Iraq. Almost 3,000 have died. They all have families. Some 20,000 have been seriously wounded. You add all their families together, and you have millions of people in the United States who are directly affected by the war."

Whether the sign is allowed to stay is a matter that won't be decided until the new year, Andersson said.