A statue of baseball legend Jackie Robinson stolen from a Kansas park was found dismantled and burned in a trash can fire Tuesday morning.
A statue of baseball legend Jackie Robinson stolen from a Kansas park was found dismantled and burned in a trash can fire Tuesday morning in what authorities called a "disgraceful" act, as the search for the perpetrators continues.
The statue was taken from McAdams Park in Wichita last week. Surveillance video captured individuals entering Jackie Robinson Pavilion around midnight on Thursday, removing the statue and placing it in a pickup truck. They cut off the statue at the ankles, leaving behind only Robinson's feet, with damages estimated to be around $75,000.
Around 8:38 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the Wichita Fire Department responded to a report of a trash can fire at Garvey Park, according to Wichita police spokesperson Andrew Ford.
After extinguishing the fire, they found what appeared to be pieces of the Robinson statue, "which is not salvageable at this time," Ford told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday.
The Wichita Fire Department is investigating the arson, while police continue to investigate the theft, Ford said.
Further proving that no matter how "advanced" we become as a people, racism and hatred will always be an artifact of the past that threatens to drag us back into a more hateful time.
These are simple minds that believe “having to look at something they don’t like” is a great oppression, which is why they want to keep their civil war statues up and cover their cars with stickers and flags.
Are you from outside the U.S., or how old are you? He was always included in lessons about the Civil Rights movement in history class for me, because he was so impactful at the time in what was the nation’s most popular sport.
You'd think they would include that in the description not just "baseball legend", because my Australian arse was wondering why the fuck anyone would really care about a baseball statue.
Yea. It's common knowledge. There are movies made about him. Recent ones at that. His number is retired throughout the entire sport. Needless to say, he was a big deal.
League 42 founder and CEO Bob Lutz told reporters that the mold from the original statue is still viable, and that they intend to replace the piece in the coming months.
They could leave the cut-off shoes from the old statue right next to the brand new one, just to remind people it's an ongoing issue.
What value does this comment have? We also can't rule out aliens or the ghost of Ty Cobb... But the preponderance of REALITY in the modern world points to the likely motivation here.
I know next to nothing about US sports but I don't even have to open the article or Google anything to know that this is about a black player's statue...
Until "they" are caught it is not obvious. They could have dumped and burned it after all the attention. "They" are obviously not the sharpest tools in the shed.
UPDATE: Now we know: "Wichita police Lt. Aaron Moses said there was no evidence it was a “hate-motivated crime” but rather the intent was to sell the metal for scrap."