Remember when the debate over public places, flags, monuments, and the like was supposedly about Confederate generals? Then it morphed to anyone who ever owned slaves, which swiftly devolved to any statue of anyone who appeared to have been white and lived a long time ago. Now it’s…Elvis?
Elvis Presley was white, but otherwise he doesn’t fit the BLM riot target model very well. He didn’t fight in the Civil War, because he wasn’t around then. He didn’t fight in any war. He died in 1977, which may be ancient history to some but others of us were actually alive and remember him. He was a singer. The King of Rock ‘N Roll.
Elvis wasn’t particularly political, though he did meet Nixon once.
Nevertheless, his former home, Graceland, has not escaped the wrath of the vandals.
The wall outside @VisitGraceland in #Memphis where #Elvis fans write their names and tributes to The King was vandalized overnite. #BlackLivesMatter #DefundMPD #AbolishIce & #BreonnaTaylor were spray painted all over the wall.
📸: @BriseidaHolguin pic.twitter.com/xT9gcyQz82— Joyce Peterson (@MemphoNewsLady) September 1, 2020
Elvis Presley’s estate was vandalized with “Black Lives Matter” and “Defund the Police” graffiti overnight into Tuesday.
The protest slogans were found spray-painted in black and orange on the stone wall surrounding the King’s mansion, a signature Memphis landmark and major tourist draw, local newspaper The Commercial Appeal reported.
“Abolish ICE” and “F–k Trump” were also among the spray-painted phrases.
The graffiti covered up many of the hundreds of tributes to the music icon handwritten by fans on the wall over the years.
It all seems obligatory now. Spray-paint anarchy, hate, and obscenities onto anything that anyone values for any reason, to debase and devalue it and to offend as many as possible. This is not about winning hearts and minds and hasn’t been for a long time. It’s about license and intimidation. Stop us if you can.
They need to be stopped. Local leaders bear responsibility for public safety at the local level. They either must do their jobs or step aside.
Another Memphis landmark, historic concert venue The Levitt Shell, was defaced with similar graffiti, including “Eat the Rich” and “Defund MPD [Memphis Police Department].”
Why? Stop us if you can.
Cities with leaders who have decided to stop this have succeeded. I’ve brought up San Antonio, Texas, a few times during the now three months of rioting because leaders there made a decision early on to repel the insurrectionists. San Antonio hasn’t seen trouble since then. Democrats run that city. They just decided not to allow it to be destroyed. So it hasn’t been.
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