On Tuesday, Richmond Police tweeted a photo of the memorial and thanked those who have placed flowers there in the wake of the shooting deaths of five Dallas officers.
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The Richmond Police Memorial statue in Richmond, Va., was vandalized Wednesday, July 12, 2016, with graffiti referring to Alton Sterling, who was killed by a police officer in Baton Rouge, La.
A retired officer not identified by the affiliate said the vandals had committed a “despicable, cowardly” act, but agreed it did not represent the rapport between the department and the city’s residents. Sterling was killed by police in Louisiana last week. The bronze statue of a police officer carrying a child, eight feet tall, was painted with a red X on the torso, the face was splashed with red paint and the phrase “Justice for Alton” was painted on paving stones at the statue’s base. The memorial has the names of 28 officers who were killed in the line of duty from 1863 to 2003, according to the newspaper.
Richmond Police Deputy Chief Steve Drew called the incident unfortunate, and said it was atypical of the relationship between law enforcement and the local community, the CBS News affiliate reported Wednesday.
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“We’ve got a lot of things going on in this country, but one thing I can say with confidence is that we don’t see the issues that are surrounding other law enforcement agencies in this country here in our city”, said Durham. “What we don’t want is for [officers] to be so on edge that they make a mistake”.
