Vandalising war memorials

needs to be dealt with in the harshest possible terms. Kicking them is not on either. It will lead to vandalising them later if left unchecked.

There were more than a couple of teenage louts who thought this would be "fun" yesterday. They were in a local "green space". It isn't really a park as such, just an area of grass with a small memorial.  It's usually a quiet space, one where people can sit on the only seat and just take a break or rest on their walk home. I don't often go that way.

I was dropping off some books to a person who lives in a house that looks out on the space. She had come out to greet me and it was then we saw the boys. They must have known the memorial was there because they immediately began kicking it.

The woman I was visiting went to her door and said something to her husband. He came out and, without hesitation, advanced on the boys. They jeered at him and us. They did not scatter as I thought they might. They defied him, telling him "There's nothing you can do Grandpa".

I was seriously worried by then. 

I need not have been. Someone in the next house had heard the shouting and come out. He was filming the entire thing on his phone although the boys were not aware of it. "Grandpa" did nothing. He just stood there. He stared at them. He went on staring at them.  It obviously bothered them. They left.

When they had gone he walked over to the memorial and carefully dusted some grass off. He picked up a can of spray paint by the very edges. His neighbour came over and filmed the rest. I left.

My friend phoned me last night "just to reassure". Yes, the police had been. Photographs had been taken. "They decided they did not need to interview you," she told me, "It's all there on film. L...and M... spent the rest of the morning clearing the mess up. When the men arrived this afternoon it was all cleared away."

There was a small Dawn Service there this morning. My friend's husband kept watch all night. The paint had not been used.

I wonder what the police will do, if they do anything at all. The evidence is there on film but will they find the boys? 

I  hope they do. I hope they do more than simply warn them but I know it is unlikely. It is the sort of thing the boys will probably boast about. I would like to sit them down, one at a time, and have them listen to the men I have known over my lifetime - the men who made it possible for those louts to be there yesterday.