Shutdown-busting lawn-mower ejected from Lincoln Memorial ahead of vets' march

The Daily Mail Online ^ | October 9, 2013 | DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR

[Uncle Chip]

With U.S. Park Service employees on furlough, a South Carolina man took it upon himself on Wednesday to mow a lawn near the Lincoln Memorial.

And law enforcement almost let him get away with it.

Chris Cox, the one-man landscaping crew, calls himself the Memorial Militia. He told a Washington, D.C. radio station that he wanted to spruce up the grass before the weekend, because a 'Million Vet March' event is expected to bring scores of retired servicemen and women to the nation's capital.

'These are our memorials. Do they think that we’re just going to let them go to hell?' Cox told WNEW-99.1 radio in Washington, D.C.

'No, if they shut down our memorials, we're still going to take the trash out, we're going to clean the windows, we're going to cut the grass, we're going to pull the weeds, we're going to do the tree work.'

Cox, who carries a South Carolina flag, over his shoulder while he works, said he had also aimed to clear a giant tree branch the had fallen near the National Mall's reflecting pool, and to mow as much of the grass as he could between the Lincoln and World War II memorials.

But the U.S. Park Police had a different idea.

The Weekly Standard reported that shortly after passersby photographed him walking behind a gas-powered push mower Wednesday morning, three federal officers made him stop.

Park Police public information officer Sergeant Paul Brooks said Cox wasn't arrested. 'He was asked to leave, and he complied,' Brooks said.

'Give him a medal,' quipped one reader on Reddit, after the story first broke on Twitter and Instagram.

'The medal-givers are all on furlough,' replied a second. 'I'm surprised he wasn't taken down by a seal team,' another chimed in.

[Revel]

so much needing illegal to Do the jobs that Americans won’t do.

[upchuck]

Thanks for the ping S&A.

South Carolina Ping
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[no-s]

His uncle's name is on the Vietnam Memorial...:"In my mind, that entitled me to pick up as much trash as I wanted to."

[Robe]

Upchuck...do you know of any upstate folks goint to DC this weekend???
I’m in Rock hill and would love to hitch a ride..or chip in on a charter bus

[Robe]

Upchuck...do you know of any upstate folks goint to DC this weekend???
I’m in Rock hill and would love to hitch a ride..or chip in on a charter bus

[upchuck]

Sorry, I do not. If I hear anything I will FReepmail you. Promise.

[Jet Jaguar]

BTTT