We have been discussing the growing number of idiots who are leaving graffiti and destroying national and state parks (here and here and here and here and here). Now some teenager has defaced the incredible Colorado National Monument with juvenile graffiti meant to convince a girl to go to the prom. The stunt could cost the culprit six months in jail. Indeed, until judges hand down some serious jail time, people like this will continue to deface our national parks.
The National Park Service’s Colorado National Monument posted pictures of the vandalism on Saturday, including shots showing the words “Prom…ise?” and “I promise to love you forever + always” on the rocks, located outside of Grand Junction. It would be especially demoralizing if a girl actually found the defacing of natural beauty in this way to be impressive . . . and went to the prom with this idiot.
The maximum sentence remains too low: a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine for that kind of vandalism.
Park officials are asking anyone with information to leave a tip with the visitor’s office at 970-858-3617 ext. 360.
Sweet sentiment…totally thoughtless and destructive execution.
I am so disappointed that our culture is not producing responsible adults. This is the generation of the school shooter, safe space, the people unable to discuss distressing topics without bubbles and stuffed animals, people who view different opinions as physical threats to be met with physical violence, and disregard for open spaces. Too many kids don’t even get off their video games and get outside at all.
Now some teenager has defaced the incredible Colorado National Monument with juvenile graffiti meant to convince a girl to go to the prom. The stunt could cost the culprit six months in jail. Indeed, until judges hand down some serious jail time, people like this will continue to deface our national parks.
Ridiculous, some serious jail time for behaving like a teenager and spray painting a rock?
It is true that the young man should have chosen a less conspicuous rock to wax/wane poetically upon but alas the folly of youth.
To demand this young man be saddled with a record that will travel with him for the rest of his days is to inflict a punishment that greatly exceeds spray painting a rock.
And a spray painted rock is exactly what this is about..
There was no harm done to the rock. The spray paint is merely cosmetic. When we get past the fact that some humans have attached sentiment to this rock and thus may respond on a base/emotional level especially in light of the fact this rock has been designated a National Monument at the beginning and end of the day it is only a rock.
There is a large boulder at a near-by university that during the course of a year is spray painted several times. Over the last twenty years it has been painted and repainted dozens of times.
Should the students spray painting the boulder near university face jail time?
What is the difference between the rock in the national park and the boulder at university?
Calling for the destruction of young persons life in order to protect/preserve a rock make one wonder who is really the rock.
Jail time for spray painting rocks is but another symptom of the run away penal colony the US has become. Placing people in jail for spray painting rocks is why the US with roughly 5% of the world’s population has the world’s largest prison population both in percentage of total world prison population 25% and actual persons imprisoned.
http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-population-total?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All
a couple of thousand years has something to do with it. Also, the person(s) doing the hieroglyphics was saying something profound.
the rot of society continues to grow. Thank a liberal
The obvious answer to this growing problem is to ban the sale and distribution of spray paint. The only people that should have access to spray paint are fully trained and certified professionals sarc off/
The only way to stop someone with a can of spray paint, is someone with more spray paint.
The only way to stop someone with a can of spray paint, is someone with more spray paint.
Accuracy is not your strong suit, is it FishWings? You do however get points for making the effort. The quote should be:
The only way to stop a bad guy with a can of spray paint is with a good guy with a can of spray paint.
Thanks for playing.
Yes, graffiti violations should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Unless, of course, the culprit spray paints ‘Yu my ho’, bitch’ in which case a large Federal NEH grant will soon be forthcoming to promote ‘art’.
It isn’t graffitti per se it’s a complete lack of respect for the legal system to the point it never occurs to offender. But then the legal system brought it on themselves by themselves. To busy parsing ‘is’ to do their job.
The reason you never see anything like this in Singapore nor even a cigarette butt in the gutter is there laws have teeth and punishments are carried out. Thus they are not needed. One bamboo crushed into fine threads featuring microscopic hooks is used as a whip. One lash per week sometimes for as much as year. No repeat offenders. No jail time. The real lesson is the law means nothing if it isn’t carried out or worse some are allowed to break the law for decades and then allowed to gloat on public TV on why they are scum. While others get first offense life sentences . We might start with some of these rogue judges who think they are holier than the entire nation and become black robed dictators. How can you teach respect when those charged with carrying out the law have no respect for it themselves?
Agreed!
When caught, orange overalls, scrub brush, community service, perhaps a few hundred hours-weekends forfeited, maybe he misses the prom. This penchant for ‘serious jail time’ is the mindless approach to deviancy that creates the problem and makes it worse. This is behavior that should be responded to in kind.
Don’t pi** off a hiker that might be a judge someday.
One aspect of the federal criminal justice system is that it has a rather clunky program for dealing with juvenile delinquency, preferring to defer to state or local officials.
I don’t know the proximity of the monument to local high schools but I suspect the perpetrators could be discovered by the park service making a high-profile visit to the local schools and waiting for someone to rat the suspect out.
The stunt could cost the culprit six months in jail.
No, an abusive prosecutor, a power-drunk judge, and a witless federal penal code will cost him six months in jail.
Yes!
Well, if the Native Americans could leave graffiti and Lewis & Clark could leave graffiti, why not some love-struck teenager? The Romans were famous for leaving graffiti. JT, I am not sure what your problem with graffiti is. 😉
Paul,
Although I don’t like what the idiot has done, I tend to have the same thoughts. Why is it one mans graffiti is anothers hieroglyphics?
Jim – graffiti is contemporary. Artifacts are historical. Graffiti from hundreds of years ago are windows upon times long past.
So, why not deface national monuments so that future generations can study our culture? For one, we are a loquacious lot who records even the most trivial of events. Archeologists will be able to deduce how we spent every minute of every day if they can uncover electronic files. People in the past were not trying to preserve natural rock formations. They were simply the walls of their environment to decorate as they saw fit. If they broke some cultural or religious law, and defaced a sacred space, they faced the justice of their times. Deface a Puritan church and get burned at the stake as an agent of Satan, for example.
They defaced what we find valuable, and so should face our laws. The rest of us don’t want to have our few remaining ancient trees girdled with initial carvings, or beautiful rock formations covered in permanent etchings or spray paint. If you spray paint over a pictograph, you would ruin the artifact to remove the paint.
It is difficult to fight the tragedy of the commons. It’s not like we can post security cameras and guards over millions of miles of open space and parkland. We as a people have to be more responsible.