Posted on 02/19/2009 6:32:37 AM PST by laotzu
The alleged perpetrator might call it art. But others consider it defacing the Shrine of Texas Liberty. An Illinois man suspected of defacing the Alamo was arrested Wednesday and charged with criminal mischief after authorities witnessed him writing on the historic site’s northeast wall, police said.
Stephen Henry Wise of Evanston, Ill., remained jailed on a $2,000 bond.
“Defacing the Alamo is like desecrating a grave,” said Alamo Director David Stewart.
According to a police report, the 44-year-old suspect wrote the letters “LCC” on a patch of limestone at a corner near Avenue E and Houston Street. The wall is part of the original Long Barracks constructed by missionaries in 1724, Stewart said.
The letters, scrawled with a piece of clay or pastel art pencil, were about 8 inches high, authorities said. Alamo rangers were not sure what LCC means.
Though the letters were cleaned off the stone, the suspect still faces a state jail felony charge of damaging a public monument.
“He wasn’t your typical graffiti tagger,” said Sgt. Alfredo Gonzales, an Alamo ranger.
Gonzales said the suspect, who described himself as an artist who works for a municipal government, was apologetic and cooperative when confronted by authorities about 8:45 a.m. after a witness reported seeing the man writing on the wall.
“He did say it (the graffiti) was a project, and that some professor wanted him to put those initials on some building, so he chose that wall there,” Gonzales said.
The suspect told authorities he was unaware the wall was part of the Alamo’s original structure.
Graffiti is rare for the Alamo. Most visitors are respectful, but rangers record about two incidents every month involving people simulating the infamous incident in which heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne urinated on the Alamo grounds, authorities said.
“Most are just posing for photos, but we kick them off the property,” Gonzales said.
On Jan. 1, police arrested a 23-year-old man after a park ranger observed him actually urinating at the Alamo about 2:45 a.m. Because urine is corrosive to limestone, pulling an Ozzy at the Alamo also is a state jail felony.
Anywhere there are men, you will find evil. Even Texas is not immune, nor to blame.
Any chance of you forgiving Texas?
My wife was asking a couple of uniformed employees at the Alamo for directions last year,... she said they couldn’t understand English!
Described himself as an artist because nobody else would.
Sarah Weddington lied, MILLIONS DIED!
As I approached, I then noticed his gunbelt and a large-frame .357 Magnum on his hip. I talked to him for a while and he graciously pointed out the highlights of the Alamo to me. Turns out he was a retired Texas Ranger who still liked to keep active in law enforcement. From what I've heard of the capabilities of the Rangers, I'd say he had everything well in hand. I'd advise against misbehaving in/around the Alamo!!
Lemme carve some graffiti on that damned Yankee’s ass.
> I, for one, would physically stop someone if I saw him defacing the Alamo. I would bet I could find a few fellow Texans who would help...at any given time.
And with any luck, one of ‘em would have a rope handy.
{Shaking head sadly...} Yankees. *Sigh*
And for about three years recently, the terrorists were blowing up just about anything in Iraq that inspired their whims, but they left the ancient sites alone. Even those subhumans had respect for ancient Babylon, the City of Ur (Abraham's birthplace), the first library at Nineveh, etc.
I'm going to guess it means "Lincoln Christian College", which is situated in Lincoln Illinois.
I base that guess on the report that the A$$ HAT said his professor told him to write "LCC" on the wall. Refer here.
Hey, it's plausible.
Yankee got lucky to only be arrested!
An old friend of mine was a room service waiter at an exclusive Southern Cali resort back in the 1970’s. He delivered an order to Ed McMahon’s suite once, where he observed a large bowl of pre-rolled, ready to smoke joints on McMahon’s coffee table. Between your story and this one, it’s not surprising that McMahon ended up financially bankrupt in his old age.
Given the prevalence of global warming hysteria on US campuses, including Art departments from coast to coast (Northwestern is nearby Evanston), LCC could signify a well-worn buzzphrase in the Global Warming racket known as Land Cover Change.
To a GW nut, or indeed to any run-of-the-mill environmental wacko dabbling in "art", The Alamo could be symbolic of anthropogenic defacement of the environment, since the whole mission complex & later the town which grew around it was founded by those eeeevil anti-Gaia priests at the site of the headwaters of the SA river, permanantly scarring the erstwhile pristine state of Mother Earth's sacred mantle.
Defacing the "defacement" with grafitti could be an act of delivering artistic retribution in the failure-warped mind of a a 44-year old loser who's still in school - an 'artist' who couldn't make it in the private market on his own & whose lackluster career must still be propped up by the taxpayers through one of those notoriously god-awful municipal art programs run by bureaucrats of questionable taste.
Having served some time in a couple of university art departments myself, and having witnessed their debasement at the hands of the PC/Green/Socialist agenda up close, I regret to say that this ridiculous scenario is, alas, entirely probable.
Nothing would surprise me these days. Here in New Zealand we just had a 50 yr old father of three girls get sent to gaol for chasing down a pair of teens who had tagged his house. He had armed himself with a knife, and when the two teens turned and rushed him, one of them got stabbed in the heart and died.
Four years, three months in the pokey for manslaughter. The Bruce Emery case has turned New Zealand’s discussion on grafitti, crime and punishment up to hi-heat.
I just came across an editorial in the Manawatu Standard which offered some sentiments which seemed eminently sensible to me - sentiments I wish I'd see more of here in the States when tragedies such as this one (i.e., when an errant teen up to no good & gets more than he bargained for when victimizing others) occur.
While stipulating that the mother's anger at her son's death & the length of Emery's sentence cannot & shouldn't be discounted, the writer also calls her & the rest of her outraged family to task for their belated concern and insists that they, too, must take responsibility.
Where was this strong, committed mother the night her 15-year-old son was out in the middle of the night drinking, doing drugs and defacing other people's property? Where was Pihema's extended family when he dropped out of school, went off the rails and needed to be brought back into line?
They proudly stood up to be counted in front of the cameras yesterday, but were they accountable for Pihema when he was still alive and really needed them?
Ms Cameron said her son grew up in a loving, caring family but, like many teenagers, got into a bit of trouble. However, if she thinks 15-year-olds going out at night to drink, smoke drugs and vandalise property is normal teenage behaviour, it's little wonder Pihema found himself in that fateful situation.
His family are by no means culpable for how he died, but they are culpable for how he lived. Bruce Emery has taken responsibility for Pihema's death and paid the price; it's about time his family took responsibility for his life.
I’m just glad I’m not them.
how would they like it if we did the same thing to their house???
Tall tree + short rope = problem solved.
Well, as long as it was an “art project”
Reading the article before posting can sometimes be a good idea.
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