Jay Heard uses a pressure washer to clean paint off the base of the Joe Louis fist Monday, Feb. 23, 2004, in downtown Detroit. The 24-foot landmark statue was covered in white paint early Monday morning by vandals who were later arrested. (AP Photo/John F. Martin)
Shame these idiots have nothing better to do How about getting there layabout behinds down to a gym and trying to achieve something like the great man.
Pictures of two slain white police officers, signed "Courtesy of Fighting Whities," were found near "the fist" sculpture memorializing boxing great Joe Louis that was vandalized with white paint, according to a police report released Tuesday.
One of the two men arrested in the case told police officers who stopped them: "We did it for you guys," the report said.
Brett J. Cashman, 45, and John T. Price, 27, both of Superior Township, entered not guilty pleas Tuesday to charges of malicious destruction of property.
Magistrate Steve Lockhart ordered each man held on $10,000 bond. He also said the men, if released, must be electronically tethered.
Lockhart said the vandalism, discovered early Monday at the monument to the black heavyweight champion, was "on a par with cross burning and hate speech, not political speech, and not just speech, but an affirmative threat."
Price's attorney, David Rosenberg, said he thought the men may have been trying to make a political statement. If so, it would be wrong to put someone in jail for that, added Marc Beginin, attorney for Cashman, who serves as a parks commissioner for Superior Township.
"This country has a long history of political activism," Beginin said.
The photocopies of pictures of two Detroit police officers killed on duty last week were found at the base of the sculpture. Written on the photocopies was: "Courtesy of Fighting Whities," the police report said.
Both slain officers were white. A black man was charged with the murders.
The 8,000-pound sculpture, a 24-foot-long arm and fist suspended from a frame, was seen by many people as an assertion of black political power and triumph over injustice, but some critics said when it was unveiled in 1986 that it was emblematic of violence in Detroit.
Louis, a hometown hero in Detroit, was black.
The two suspects "haven't given police an exact reason why they did it," Officer Glen Woods, a department spokesman, told the Detroit Free Press. "An investigator said one of them has alluded to the fist being representative of violence in Detroit."
Deputy Chief Tara Dunlop said Tuesday that she couldn't comment on a possible motive or confirm Woods' statement.
A message seeking comment was left Tuesday at a telephone listing for Cashman; there was no telephone listing for Price in Ypsilanti.
Police stopped the suspects in suburban Romulus after authorities were tipped off by a motorist who saw two men covered with white paint leaving the city before dawn, Romulus police Lt. Cora Semrau said.
Firefighters used high-powered hoses to remove the gloss paint from the sculpture, which was completed in 1986. Workers later removed the remaining paint after consulting with the Detroit Institute of Arts, so as not to damage the piece.
"I feel like there are some stupid people out here," said Jeffrey January, a Detroit resident who was standing across the street from the statue Monday morning. "Joe Louis was an important man to the city."
Louis, one of the greatest heavyweight fighters, knocked out Germany's Max Schmeling for the title in June 1938. The sensational first-round victory, heard by a nationwide radio audience, not only avenged Louis' loss to Schmeling in a 1936 nontitle bout, it countered Adolf Hilter's belief of Aryan supremacy.
Louis was born Joseph Louis Barrow in 1914 in Lexington, Ala., and moved to Detroit with his family when he was 12.
The Feb. 16 killings of Officers Jennifer Fettig and Matthew Bowens have heightened concerns about violence in Detroit. In January, 35 people were slain, nine more than in January 2003, and the pace has continued in February.
Wednesday February 25, 01:37 AM
John Price, 27, left, and Brett Cashman, 45, both of Washtenaw County's Superior Township, Mich., enter innocent pleas Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004, to charges of malicious destruction of property in 36th District Court in Detroit via video conference from the Wayne County Jail. Price and Cashman are accused of coating a monument to boxing great Joe Louis with white paint. The vandalism was discoverd early Monday.
Wednesday February 25, 01:37 AM
John Price, 27, left, and Brett Cashman, 45, both of Washtenaw County's Superior Township, Mich., enter innocent pleas Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004, to charges of malicious destruction of property in 36th District Court in Detroit via video conference from the Wayne County Jail. Price and Cashman are accused of coating a monument to boxing great Joe Louis with white paint. The vandalism was discoverd early Monday.
What a pair of wankers.
They should be made to spar with Tyson for their crimes.
How about getting there layabout behinds down to a gym and trying to achieve something like the great man.