Thursday’s column: Vandals mar a wonderful gift along the greenway
Photo by Dan
The semi-anguished tip came in one day last week, from a big fan of the Roanoke River Greenway.
He shall remain nameless, but he rides his bike on the linear park most nice-weather days. And what he had observed in Vic Thomas Park left him shocked and dismayed.
It was a relatively new bench with a plaque that honored a local guy, Tom Skelly. It was donated by Skelly’s family — and we’ll get into the story behind that in just a moment.
On the large, light-gray concrete pad below the bench, some cretin had scrawled in large black letters, “david duke Radio.” It looked as if it had been done with a fat black permanent marker.
You’ve probably heard of David Duke. He’s a white-separatist swine, a former Louisiana state lawmaker and ex-grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. He now peddles his racist and anti-immigration garbage on a radio show. It may be internet only — I’m not sure. He’s a hate-monger.
Photo by Dan
“I go down to the greenway to get away from all that stuff,” the revolted tipster told me. “It’s the last thing I want to see.”
He keyed me where to look and that day I went over there. Sure enough the scrawl was there.
On Thursday I prowled the greenway on foot, and discovered another. It was a swastika, inside a star of David, on a wall underneath the railroad tracks overpass near Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
By Friday, the city Parks and Recreation Department had heard about the graffiti beneath the bench and power-washed it away.
That’s part of the good news. Another part has to do with the story of how the bench got there in the first place.
READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.
From left: Tom Skelly, grandchildren Ciara Mulcahy and Campbell Skelly, and son Martin Skelly. Photo by Margaret Skelly Mulcahy.
October 18, 2012 - 6:00 AM
It would be great if the cops could catch people doing this garbage. An appropriate sentence would be 1 year of community service on the Greenway.
The Skellys are good folk. I’m aware of some of the good stuff Martin has done. Ciara is a local high school cross country runner (as all of the Mulcahy kids have been). Sad that some ignorant David Duke fan (yes, I know that was redundant) felt the need to mess up the bench area.
What a COWARD! Why not put a DAVID DUKE sign in your front yard? We all know the answer – C-O-W-A-R-D !!
I ride this route pretty frequently and have seen several white supremacy messages along the way.
Rob- A more appropriate punishment would be for this punk to have to stand out on the greenest for 24 hours and allow people to scrawl graffiti on him.
That’s greenway stupid phone auto-complete!
I moved to the Old Southwest neighborhood three weeks ago and had plenty of people tell me it was a great neighborhood and plenty tell me the opposite. One friend told me “don’t dare leave your Miata on the street over there, it will be vandalized in a month”. Well this morning I found my car had been “keyed” right in front of my house, the damage at least $500 which of course will be out of pocket. Welcome to a typical city neighborhood.
I wonder if the graffiti has anything to do with these folks, or their friends:
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/313933
“The female said she ‘flashed’ her tattoos, which included a swastika on one arm and ‘SS’ on the other”
That is bound to attract people to the Greenways! Sad, just sad.
I really passionately hate litterers. Graffiti is just two dimensional litter. And littering is the absolute height of laziness. It’s reprehensible.
I personally would gladly pay extra tax dollars to fund a policeman or three to patrol the greenway…
Miriam:
“And littering is the absolute height of laziness. It’s reprehensible.”
I agree. I have a friend who thinks nothing of throwing trash out the window of his truck. It disgusts me to think people are that disrespectful of public property or the property of others.
Chad:
11.”I personally would gladly pay extra tax dollars to fund a policeman or three to patrol the greenway…”
I wouldn’t. We have too many cops now; why not reassign some of the ones we already have?
They should declare the greenway a ‘no fat black marker’ zone.
(That one’s for you, Wilburn!)
I know there are some that think racism is something that happens somewhere else. But as this proves it is right here at home. You might hear it while you’re shopping for food or getting your car fixed. I know I heard plenty in the last Presidential elections. The point is I think we all need to face them in the light of day. I am sure James Baldwin could say it so much better than I can but face it we must , no matter how outnumbered we appear to be.
I do not like litter or graffiti and certainly not racist remarks but I wonder if Casey would be just as outraged if the graffiti was something like “Gays for Peace” painted in rainbow colors.
waynep:
“I wonder if Casey would be just as outraged if the graffiti was something like “Gays for Peace” painted in rainbow colors.”
I wondered the very same thing, but instead of “Gays for Peace”, it was some leftist hater or a graffifi promotion of a black racist’s talk show. What if it was race pimp Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton’s show. They’re both haters.
Contrasuzie:
“13.They should declare the greenway a ‘no fat black marker’ zone.”
Yes, they should make a law that will keep that from happening…LOL. The sign would surely stop such things. Actually, they had better not discriminate aginst the “fat” or “black” markers.
Thankfully, the 2004 statewide preemption law ended legal bigotry against gun owners on the greenway.
Early on when the greenways were becoming popular I hadsuggested we needed regular Police bike patrols. Many stretches of are in very secluded segments which make them a target for hiding and attacks on people. I encountered the homeless sleeping on the to few benches that we do have. The greenways have a serious lack of trash cans and graffiti is a serious problem. If we had regular Police patrols and the hoodlums saw that the police did in fact patrol the greenways it might be worth it to potential cut down on potential violence and crimes.
We should not wait till a woman get’s assaulted and raped before we are concerned about safety of the greenways. These are our pedestrian highways and byways for the future, we need lighting and regular police patrols.
JohnW and Contra…no hating on fat black things.
waynep, I’ve never in my life seen one piece of pro-homosexual graffiti. I’ve seen a ton of white supremacist graffiti.
E. Duane, I’m on the greenway a lot and usually by myself, and I agree with you. Especially this time of year when the days get short, I’m more and more leery of going out past I time I know I can’t finish my workout before dark.
Only one time have I been spooked enough to turn around and pretend to be talking on my phone while I walked away, and I gave it a good few minutes to see if anyone came by to make that stretch of the greenway seem busier. It can get very creepy.
Kristen:
“E. Duane, I’m on the greenway a lot and usually by myself, and I agree with you. Especially this time of year when the days get short, I’m more and more leery of going out past I time I know I can’t finish my workout before dark.
Only one time have I been spooked enough to turn around and pretend to be talking on my phone while I walked away, and I gave it a good few minutes to see if anyone came by to make that stretch of the greenway seem busier. It can get very creepy.”
All of this translates into: “I should carry a gun, but I’m afraid of what my friends would think.”
Kristen:
“I’ve never in my life seen one piece of pro-homosexual graffiti.”
Graffiti in general is a rare thing in Blacksburg, but I have seen pro-gay graffiti here. Of the graffiti we see, pro-planet and women’s rights is probably the bulk of it. I think the white-supremacist flavor ranks last in NRV. Graffiti is uber rare in Christiansburg.
Come on, waynep and John W, I don’t imagine you’ll find a single liberal here who supports unfettered graffiti by anybody. And I personally don’t see pro-homosexual or pro-black-racist talk show graffiti. Heck, I can’t even name a black racist talk show host. I personally have no use for Al Sharpton, but nonetheless, I also don’t see any graffiti for the guy. Both of you are just making stuff up while the fact is that in Roanoke we DO see white racist graffiti (along with some gang stuff, which I absolutely guarantee every liberal on this blog is against).
In fact, John W, you’re having to stretch REAAALLLLY far in your attempt to make some vague point. Even the graffiti that you say you almost never see in Blacksburg isn’t “hate” graffiti — pro gay, pro planet, and pro woman. Give us a break.
#21 How many people who run seriously carry a gun? I know LOT and LOTS of runners, and not one carries a gun during a workout (or a race). I’m not sure where they would carry it.
I think JohnW was kidding. I hope.
#25 I don’t think he was, Kristen, but that can be hard to determine on the interwebs.