Cenotaph vandalized at Richmond City Hall
Posted February 26, 2014 8:13 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RICHMOND (NEWS1130) – The cenotaph out front of Richmond City Hall has been vandalized.
RCMP are looking for anyone who may have seem someone spray painting the monument between 5 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. Wednesday.
City crews have tried to clean the spray paint off the cenotaph but had to stop. “Unfortunately they’re finding that they’re actually rubbing off some of the names So they’ve stopped because they have to figure out a way to solve this problem without taking off names of people that have been on there since 1923,” says RCMP Corporal Stephanie Ashton. “Frankly, it’s not like we can paint over this and fix this problem.”
Locals, like this man, are in shock with the level of disrespect. “The soldiers fought for our freedom and [the vandals] should be put in jail.”
A man walking by the cenotaph says it’s disgusting. “I think someone is being extremely disrespectful and they don’t understand how important something like this is.”
RCMP don’t believe this is a hate crime, but the cenotaph was chosen to get the most media attention. “According to our graffiti specialist in the office, this is a culture. They want you to know about them, and they want you to see their work,” says Ashton.
The cenotaph wasn’t the only vandalism in Richmond Tuesday. “666” was spray painted in similar black paint on Olympic statues along River Road and the Britannia shipyards.
