La Habra -- came under the national spotlight last week, when this newspaper reported antiwar demonstrators had destroyed a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the East Coast. Vandals destroyed 87 American flags, destroying red-white-and-blue stepping stones created by neighborhood children and replacing patriotic signs with antiwar slogans.
The story was picked up on the Drudge Report, muck-raking journalist Matt Drudge's Internet Web site, and quickly went global.
As the week ended, the fence had become a rallying point of patriotism, drawing people from all over Southern California who heard about it on the news and wanted to help restore it.
By Thursday, 200 new American flags were again flying at the site, along with new posters and pictures of Sept. 11 victims and of local soldiers and their families.
Good news. Anybody got a picture?
Date Posted: 08:17:51 03/12/03 WedAuthor: Pissed Americans
Subject: POLICE WITNESS VADDALISM OF 9/11 MEMORIAL; (DO NOTHING &) CALL IT FREE SPEACH
Seems like these California cops and anti war protesters are one in the same. That is no shame & hate America First freaks. The article's author wrote up the arsehole's phone numbers listed below. PLEASE!! feel free to spread, e-mail this around. Do you think these protesters thrown in jail and the jerk off cops fired? Let the mayor of La Habra know what you think!
La Habra City Talk: 24-hour voicemail: (562) 905-9743
The La Habra city homepage
http://www.ci.la-habra.ca.us/
"POLICE WITNESS VADDALISM OF 9/11 MEMORIAL; (DO NOTHING &) CALL IT FREE SPEACH"
http://www.chronwatch.com/featured/contentDisplay.asp?aid=1875
Posted by Cinnamon Stillwell
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
The hatred of the so-called anti-war protesters for America and its troops is bubbling over. Not only did thugs trash a 9/11 memorial, but police officers witnessed the vandalism and did nothing. Whittierdailynews.com reports on this disturbing incident in La Habra, California.
Antiwar protesters burned and ripped up flags, flowers and patriotic signs at a Sept. 11 memorial that residents erected on a fence along Whittier Boulevard days after the terrorist attacks in 2001 and have maintained ever since.
However, although officers witnessed the vandalism Saturday afternoon, police did not arrest three people seen damaging the display because they were ''exercising the same freedom of speech that the people who put up the flags were,'' La Habra Police Capt. John Rees said Monday.
''For this to be vandalism, there had to be an ill-will intent,'' he said.
Rees said in order for police to take any action, the owner of the fence would have to file a complaint.
Jeff Collison, owner of The RV Center in La Habra, who has allowed residents to add patriotic symbols to the fence on his property, said he just might do that.
''Their free speech stops at destruction of private property. If they are allowed to come on my property and burn flags, does that mean I can go to City Hall or the police station and light their flags on fire because that is freedom of speech? To me, this is vandalism,'' Collison said.
Some residents Monday hung signs criticizing those who destroyed the display.
So Cal Police Witness 9/11 Memorial Vandalism - Call It Free Speech
La Habra 9/11 Memorial Defamation Links
Thanks for the link in #5. They mentioned La Habra 9/11 Memorial on FOX. Thought you'd like to know.