Seek Stricter Penalties For Vandals of Cop, Firefighter Memorials

The City Council is considering a bill that would increase the penalty for vandalizing memorials to firefighters, police officers and members of the armed forces.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang PETER F. VALLONE JR.: Favors getting tougher.

The change to the Administrative Code would make defacing such memorials punishable by a fine of between $10,000 and $25,000 "in addition to any criminal penalty or sanction that may be imposed." The fine would not "limit or preclude any cause of action available to any person or entity aggrieved."

Has Panel Chair's Backing

The Council's Public Safety Committee will discuss the bill Oct. 27. It has the support of the committee's Chairman, Peter F. Vallone Jr., and Civil Service and Labor Committee Chairman Joseph P. Addabbo.

Detectives Endowment Association President Michael J. Palladino supports the bill.

"I think those people who gave their life in the line of duty would be victimized a second time if their memory was in fact vandalized," he said. "I mean, these people who gave their life in harm's way to defend the people of the city should be raised up and held on a higher plateau, and just to think that their memory would be vandalized, that's difficult to accept."