There is a cross on a traffic island in town as well, put up by the Knights of Columbus in the '50s, an while they were here the atheist group decided that had to go too. The town did some sort of land-management footwork to allow it to stay up. There was no local movement to have these simple, inocuous religious taken away. Just atheists from who knows where riding in to cause trouble to all of us.
Where I was born in California, there is a cross overlooking the valley. Or was, I should say -- atheists had it taken down. Where I grew up there WAS a large statue of Jesus up in the woods next to town commemorating WW2 casualties (a military town with several service branches maintaining bases, my dad was stationed there several times) until atheists got wind of it and had it taken down.
These incidents over the course of my life are a microcosm of what is going on here in America -- just google it and you will find dozens and dozens of incidents along similar lines. Rest assured, atheists do "care."
I am generally leery of generalizing entire groups, but atheists are my exception. They are overwhelmingly bitter, negative, obnoxious, and angry. They have nothing better to do than go around causing trouble for the rest of us. They suffer from an inner rage because deep down inside they know God is real, and in their rage they try to erase every outward symbol of His existence in an attempt to reassure themselves that He is not real.
What you are describing could be entirely due to so-called "Observation Bias."
Since only "incidents" will get reported on, and remembered, while "non-incidents" (read: atheists going about their business, totally uninterested in attempting to engage theists in debate) will never get reported on, or are soon forgotten, the false impression arises that atheists are "causing trouble" for everyone else.
Regards,