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Defiling the National War Monument

ReFLeX

Graduate Poster
R
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Feb 4, 2005
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The front page of yesterday's Ottawa Citizen:
"A national disgrace"
Furious veterans are renewing their demands that the National War Memorial be guarded to protect it against "disgusting" assaults after young men were caught urinating on it during Canada Day festivities.

A retired major snapped digital pictures of several people relieving themselves on the monument around 11 p.m. on Saturday, as thousands poured into the streets following the fireworks.

Most cheered and laughed when they were photographed using the memorial as a toilet on the nation's birthday.
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Which led to this:
War memorial now police 'priority'
Police have launched a criminal investigation and authorities are considering posting security guards at the National War Memorial following a furious national outcry ignited by a photo published in the Citizen of a young man urinating on the monument on Canada Day.

Ottawa police described the case as "a priority" and said they intend to charge the young male in the picture if he can be identified.
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I have a feeling the kid in the picture would be in even bigger trouble, if this had happened in the U.S.
 
Why do you feel that way? I do not.

We are used to seeing our flag burned, our president ridicluled. The guy urinated in public. Perhaps someone would have stopped him or beat the hell out of him, but why would he be in "more trouble"?

The man caught urinating on the monument could be charged under the Criminal Code of Canada with mischief for preventing "the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property," with consequences ranging from probation to a fine or possible jail time, depending upon his past involvement with police. He could also be charged under the National Capital Commission Traffic and Property Regulations Act for "behaving in an offensive manner,"
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What more should be done? Personally I woulda knocked his ass down and pissed on him, but I have a short temper sometimes.
 
schplurg said:
Why do you feel that way? I do not.

We are used to seeing our flag burned, our president ridicluled. The guy urinated in public. Perhaps someone would have stopped him or beat the hell out of him, but why would he be in "more trouble"?


What more should be done? Personally I woulda knocked his ass down and pissed on him, but I have a short temper sometimes.
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Concur, especially with the last line. In the US, he'd have likely only been charged with pubic urination. $25-50 fine, depending on the state.

An asskickin' is the right answer for some crimes.
 
you don't want to know what people do.

Paint swastika signs on Jewish graves (small fine and you have to clean it up)...

Burn the flag and Bush in effigy (well Bush is fine with me, in reality!)

Heck the kid would have the ACLU defending his right to pee on the monument.

He could pass it off as "performance art" protesting Canadian involvement in foreign wars.

I honestly think the Asians would just kick his butt for making a mess.
 
I would think it a shameful act, whether in Canada, the USA, Australia, Germany or Outer Mongolia for that matter. I would expect some sort of punishment as a result - perhaps licking the dirty spot clean??
 
In the US we'd politely look the other way if the guy were taking a dump on the monument.
 
I had guessed perhaps U.S. citizens are more aware of their military, considering how active and large it is compared to ours. Maybe I'm wrong.
 
Does no one see the difference between destroying your own property and desecrating someone else's property?

It's one thing to burn your own flag. Disrespecful maybe, but well within your rights. But, if you eat Nixon's flag during Freedom Day, THEN there's an issue of destroying someone else's property.
 
As far as I remember there is a law against public urination, or similar, in this country. Charge the drunk youth on this account and get on with your lives.

Who cares what he was urinating on? Unless it was a person, in which case I suppose the punishment should be incremented.
 
DanishDynamite said:
As far as I remember there is a law against public urination, or similar, in this country. Charge the drunk youth on this account and get on with your lives.

Who cares what he was urinating on? Unless it was a person, in which case I suppose the punishment should be incremented.
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Why have monuments at all?
 
Personally, I think this looks exactly the same as flag burning or any other form of risque expression. The perp has the same rights and responsibilities in either case.

It reminds me of that picture of Patton pissing into the Rhine. We've got a long history of pissing on things that piss us off, or threatening to piss on the thing that pisses us off, so why suddenly get all bent out of shape over it now? If anything, we should admire the guy that actually has the balls to go through with the boast he made in front of all his friends one drunken friday evening.
 
As I said, he didn't urinate on HIS monument in his living room, he urinated on someone ELSE'S monument. The difference between this and flag burning is simple, one of PROPERTY OWNERSHIP. It's like asking "what's so wrong with spending that guy's money? I spend my own all the time and that's legal!".
 
In New Zealand war memorials are classified as graves, and desecrating a grave is illegal. (No doubt here they would be charged with desecrating a grave AND urinating in public AND destruction of public property).

-Andrew
 
I suspect the difference between flag-burning and urinating on a war-memorial is that of "destruction" of same. The former is actual physical destruction of property, the latter is merely dreadful manners, lack of sobriety, or possibly an extreme version of registering protest.

To find an equivalent, you would need to either piss on a flag, or burn down a war memorial. I recommend and support none of these courses, incidentally.
 
Mycroft said:
In the US we'd politely look the other way if the guy were taking a dump on the monument.
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You do a terrible wrong to the American spirit when you say that! We wouldn't look the other way at all!

We'd take pictures of it with our camera phones and post them online. They'd wind up on humor sites as funny caption contests and on monument defecation fetish sites (I'm holding to the internet dictum that if you can imagine it, there's a fetish website out there for it). The guy who did the defecating would wind up a celebrity and be a guest on Howard Stern's show, if that's still around. Then he'd appear in toilet paper advertisements.
 
Mason said:
If anything, we should admire the guy that actually has the balls to go through with the boast he made in front of all his friends one drunken friday evening.
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Yes, there is nothing more admirable than a drunk desecrating the tomb of someone who died protecting that drunk's freedom. It's especially admirable when you consider there was no guard around the tomb and the story doesn't seem to say anything about anyone being arrested, prosecuted, or simply beaten up by an enraged crowd. What a brave guy; balls, indeed.
 
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