Video cameras are passive and defensive in nature. Good evidence to use after the act has been committed. Or at best if someone is monitoring full time, can dispatch resources as the vandalism happens. The only deterrent factor is a sign telling the bad guys the camera is running. Do we really need more signs at Gettysburg?

I think in the end, the situation calls for more uniformed personnel on patrol, or some volunteer organization augmenting those already patroling. Unfortunately, the costs associated with that solution are fairly steep.

Seriously, they could probably set up a camera system around vulnerable areas of the park for probably what cleaning up the Peace Memorial is going to cost.

There are many preservation and rehab projects that sorely need money right now, but maybe it’s time a few hundred grand go into a security system. The Rangers and Park Watch do a tremendous job, but they can only do so much. We either keep having a few hundred thousand dollars worth of damage every year, or we do something mechanical about it to stem the tide.

J.D.

There’s been a lot of vandalism over the past couple years, and unlike being unable to catch the a**holes who damaged several other monument recently, I hope these can be caught. And made an example of. It all is horrendous, but such vadalism to the Peace Memorial is abhorrent in the extreme. Veterans, if they could see it today, would cry.

Draw and quarter the perpetrators. Then shoot the pieces. That after they have to lick every goddamn bit of spraypaint off with their tongues, for however long it takes.

J.D.

To NPS’ credit, they reacted fairly quickly to the incident. I couldn’t say when the vandalism took place, but it was reported to the NPS late Thursday afternoon (Jan. 8) by a battlefield guide, and the worst of it was covered within 24 hours.