A mural in Venice honoring veterans of the Vietnam War will need to be redone due to the extent of the graffiti damage it sustained last week, according to a city official, who also said a reward totaling $20,000 was in the works to find the vandals.
Metro workers on Memorial Day used a tarp to cover what's been viewed as not just as vandalism but an insult. The painting of graffiti over a mural honoring POWs and MIAs is something Marine veteran Wayne Brown is struggling to understand.
"This is one of the many reasons why I think everyone should serve their country in one way or another, so they can come to appreciate it," Brown said.
Volunteers tried on Sunday to remove some of the graffiti, but the scrubbing also meant removing some of the names of the more than 2,000 veterans honored. The city may have no choice but to start all over again and restore a mural that was created nearly 25 years ago.
"We're asking folks who have historical photos of the mural, details of the names, to make sure they send them to us just so we can make sure we don't forget anybody," City Councilman Mike Bonin said.
Not everyone agrees with the idea of covering up the vandalism with a tarp. Marine veteran John Scudder told Metro workers he thinks it sends a signal that the vandals won.
"That's like giving into the graffiti artist that he won," he said. "The whole goal out here is to make a statement that hey, we're not going to stand for this."
But veterans say they appreciate the overwhelming support they've received from the public.
"We even had people that took shifts last night that volunteered to watch this wall," Scudder said.
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Bonin says detectives are looking at surveillance video and social media to see if they can identify the vandals. Three murals have been vandalized in the last couple of weeks, he said.
