Just 35 days after being replaced, Emmett Till memorial sign hit with bullets

[GMDino]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/08/05/emmett-till-sign-vandalized-35-days-after-replaced/910681002/

Quote:Just 35 days after a bullet-riddled Emmett Till sign was replaced, it has been shot again.

If the Emmett Till Memorial Commission were to replace the sign again, it would mark the fourth time it has been replaced.

The sign marks where Emmett Till's body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River.

Ever since the state began to memorialize Till, first with the naming of a highway after him in 2005, signs commemorating him have been frequent targets of vandalism.

The riverside marker at Graball Landing is the final site on the Civil Rights Driving Tour in Tallahatchie County.

"The Emmett Till Interpretive Center is committed to seeing the sign replaced," said co-founder Patrick Weems. "We have already begun plans to replace the sign and have notified local law enforcement about the vandalism.

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"Our mission is to continue to tell the truth as it concerns the Emmett Till story. We are saddened by these events but are unwavering in our commitment to truth and racial reconciliation."

The state historical marker remembering the Ku Klux Klan’s 1964 killings of three civil rights workers has suffered a similar fate — repeatedly torn down and vandalized.[/url]


Six months after the commission installed the first sign, it disappeared.

Dave Tell, author of the upcoming book, “Remembering Emmett Till,” said tire tracks leading from the site to the riverbank led Sheriff William Brewer to conclude that the sign had been tossed into the Tallahatchie River, just as Till’s body was — “an irony not lost on the local black community.”

Not long after installing a second sign in 2013, the sign was riddled with bullets.

Tell said he believes it is best to leave the sign, rather than replace it.

More: [url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/10/lawmakers-push-make-more-civil-rights-sites-national-monuments/575113002/]Lawmakers push to make civil rights landmarks national monuments
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“The bullet holes bear eloquent witness to the fact that work remains to be done,” he said, “that the memory of Till’s murder still cuts a rift through the heart of the modern day Delta.”

Alvin Sykes, president of the Emmett Till Justice Campaign, agreed that the sign should remain as it is.

"The sign going back up is a sign of progress," he said. "The bullets are showing how much further we need to go."

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Rather than replace the shot up sign, they should leave it up but continue to put up a new sign. It will not only be a memorial to Emmett Till and all those murdered in the past, present and future but be a reminder that there is still a lot of hate and ignorance out there.

Leave an empty post for when the sign was stolen.
Leave the first sign that was shot up.
Leave the second sign.
And so on.

After a while though, a hidden camera needs to be placed to catch the people vandalizing the signs. When caught, they need to pay for the old sign, new sign and forced to install the new sign then fined and jailed or whatever penalty for vandalism and discharging a firearm in public brings.

[*michaelsean*]

Maybe the perps are the kind that like to video their crimes and post them online.

[*Nately120*]

(08-07-2018, 12:07 AM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: Rather than replace the shot up sign, they should leave it up but continue to put up a new sign. It will not only be a memorial to Emmett Till and all those murdered in the past, present and future but be a reminder that there is still a lot of hate and ignorance out there.

Leave an empty post for when the sign was stolen.
Leave the first sign that was shot up.
Leave the second sign.
And so on.

After a while though, a hidden camera needs to be placed to catch the people vandalizing the signs. When caught, they need to pay for the old sign, new sign and forced to install the new sign then fined and jailed or whatever penalty for vandalism and discharging a firearm in public brings.

Call me a pessimist, but I can't imagine a man who shoots that sign would be found guilty by a jury of his peers or any Mississippi judge who wants to keep his job.  Put the sign in a state where people might not shoot it.  It's time to give up on Mississippi. 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

(08-07-2018, 10:09 AM)YNately120 Wrote: Call me a pessimist, but I can't imagine a man who shoots that sign would be found guilty by a jury of his peers or any Mississippi judge who wants to keep his job.  Put the sign in a state where people might not shoot it.  It's time to give up on Mississippi. 

turn it into federal property ran by the organization and try them in federal court might work.

[Benton]

(08-07-2018, 12:34 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: turn it into federal property ran by the organization and try them in federal court might work.

Simple solution, but since it's along a river it would probably fall under U.S. Army Corps, which creates all sorts of headaches. Might be easier just to make the sign out of something more bullet resistant.

[Belsnickel]

(08-07-2018, 12:07 AM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: Rather than replace the shot up sign, they should leave it up but continue to put up a new sign. It will not only be a memorial to Emmett Till and all those murdered in the past, present and future but be a reminder that there is still a lot of hate and ignorance out there.

Leave an empty post for when the sign was stolen.
Leave the first sign that was shot up.
Leave the second sign.
And so on.

After a while though, a hidden camera needs to be placed to catch the people vandalizing the signs. When caught, they need to pay for the old sign, new sign and forced to install the new sign then fined and jailed or whatever penalty for vandalism and discharging a firearm in public brings.

I like this idea. Leaving the damaged signs in place as a reminder that racism isn't dead in our society and that we still have a lot of work to do.

[Millhouse]

It is Mississippi after all, so nothing shocking here. It may take 3, 4, 5, maybe more generations for racism to eventually dwindle down to hardly nothing down south. I know racism can exist anywhere, but down there it is extra thick with it.

[*michaelsean*]

(08-07-2018, 01:25 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: I like this idea. Leaving the damaged signs in place as a reminder that racism isn't dead in our society and that we still have a lot of work to do.

I think they said they are doing that.

[Beaker]

(08-07-2018, 01:36 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I think they said they are doing that.

Wonder what they're gonna do when they have 23 shot up signs left up in the same place. Do they go for 24?

[GMDino]

(08-07-2018, 11:56 PM)Beaker Wrote: Wonder what they're gonna do when they have 23 shot up signs left up in the same place. Do they go for 24?

Maybe they hope that someday the racist arses will die off and then can stop changing signs.

[Au165]

...They should probably install cameras while they are at it.