LOUISVILLE, Ky. — City and state leaders are discussing solutions after a fallen officer memorial in downtown Louisville was hit by vandals again.
Most of the damage on the monument in Jefferson Square Park is cleared, but some burnt debris is still visible.
The tribute honors nearly 120 fallen officers. It was first damaged in 2020 during the policy accountability protest. Recently, it was damaged Friday and again on Sunday. However, according to a police citation, the site has been tampered with on more occasions.
The repeat acts have renewed calls for action.
Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) President Ryan Straw has proposed moving it but said he’s open to all solutions.
“This doesn't hurt any active police officers on the street, but what it does is it hurts the families,” Straw said. “It's getting frustrating day by day. And it's not just here in Louisville, it happened to Northern Kentucky in the past couple months, and it happened in Lexington before. I’m just not sure why the Fallen Officer Memorial seems to be the target of folks.”
Sunday, Louisville Metro Police arrested 39-year-old Walter Richards after he assaulted a random woman on 5th and Liberty. According to his arrest citation, Richards then began throwing trash into the monuments’ 'Eternal Flame,’ causing debris to run down the sides of the memorial.
The citation also states Richards has been caught on surveillance video throwing debris into the memorial on at least 4 different occasions.
“We've got a problem here in Louisville, and we've got to fix it,” Straw said. “We got to get some folks understand the role of law enforcement and how they want to be in the community.”
Metro Councilmember Anthony Piagentini, R–District 19, said moving the monument shouldn't be an option. Instead, he suggests an Louisville Metro Police officer patrol the area when they're not on-call.
“If we can't even secure a little monument that's literally across the street from the seats and the halls of power here within the city, then really, we've given up on downtown and I refuse to do that,” Piagentini said.
He also acknowledged that some of the past vandalism could have been due to frustration with officers’ behavior.
“It is totally fair to have a dialogue about the police in the public sphere,” Piagentini said. “What should they do, shouldn't they do, how are they doing things - but that is with the living. That is amongst public policymakers that is amongst leaders. We don't go to people's grave sites and air grievances about something else.”
Mayor Craig Greenberg, D–Louisville, said he's supportive of the current location, and is open to hearing more about the patrols, but is cognizant of the 300-plus officer shortage.
“This is totally unacceptable. It's deplorable,” Greenberg said of the vandalism. “We have limited resources with LMPD. And we certainly want to focus on preventing violent crime, solving violent crime cases, reducing the number of homicides and gun violence in our community. But at the same time, we also want to ensure that this memorial, just like other memorials around town and other public spaces are treated with respect and that are not vandalized. And so, we will be considering what are the best approaches to prevent this moving forward.”
Straw said the FOP Presidents' Council meets on the June 12 and the group will decide what to do with the memorial. He said right now the 8 presidents are split.
The council will take community input and hear from the family members of the fallen officers listed on the monument.
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