Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross Stolen

[101CH47]

The 7-foot-tall metal cross that has stood in California's Mojave Desert for 75 years and withstood a hard-fought battle in the Supreme Court was ripped down and stolen Sunday night, according to state officials.

 

"This is an outrage, akin to desecrating people's graves," said Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Institute, which represents the caretakers of the Mojave Desert War Memorial. "It's a disgraceful attack on the selfless sacrifice of our veterans. We will not rest until this memorial is re-installed."

 

The National Park Service says someone cut the metal bolts holding the metal-pipe cross to the top of Sunrise Rock and made off with it Sunday night or before dawn on Monday.

 

Veterans groups are outraged at the theft of the memorial symbol that was erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars to honor World War I dead.

 

"To think anyone can rationalize the desecration of a war memorial is sickening, and for them to believe they won't be apprehended is very naïve," said VFW National Commander Thomas J. Tradewell Sr. in a written statement.

 

The 75-year-old monument was the target of a legal challenge from the ACLU, which charged the cross is a religious symbol that shouldn't be allowed on public land. The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to order that it be torn down, as the land had already been sold to private owners.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/11/thiev...ighttime-heist/

[teufelhunde.ret]

This is a shame - the cross and the site has been under fire for years. And just last month the Supreme Court ruled that the lower court (A lower court in California had ruled that the 8ft high Latin cross, erected in 1934 in memory of fallen First World War soldiers, contravened the First Amendment, which enshrines the separation of church and state) had been wrong to block that solution. Arguing the cross should stay Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote: "Here one Latin cross in the desert evokes far more than religion. "It evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten."

[Bluehawk]

There's nothing of theirs that can be stolen back - they haven't got anything.

 

p.s.

They had best hope the cops get to them first.

[101CH47]

The Liberty Institute is now offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction in the case, and the National Park Service has established a tip hotline seeking information leading to the recovery of the cross. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Park Service at (760) 252-6120.

[stonewaller]

Disgraceful. We have had a lot of instances recently here in the UK of war memorials being stolen/graffiti'd and even pissed on. Total scum bags.

[101CH47]

My wish is for some vets in the Hell's Angles to find them. Quite sure justice will be served.

[Blair217]

I have followed this case for sometime hoping the outcome would be favorable.Now this depraved act by some unknown cretins destroys the joy many of us felt in the outcome.I fervently hope someplace along the line they are found and made to suffer in the most despicable way possible like the act they commited.