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.
Streisand Effect
I had never heard of Jackie until this post
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.
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.
Common knowledge in the US. I hadnt heard of him either
Only if you’re in the us, I don’t live there
I don’t live on the united states and I’m glad I don’t with all its human rights issues
If you’re from somewhere that doesn’t care about baseball then that’s pretty expected.
Chadwick Boseman played Jackie Robinson in a movie named “42”, released in 2013. Worth a watch if you want to know more.
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.
While it is reasonable to jump to racism as the cause, we can’t rule out idiots being idiots.
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.
Plus racism is people being idiots.
I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of people who support this while doing mental backflips to tell themselves they’re not racist.
Not just that but it’s probably because some racist fucking shitbags statue got taken down.
Always glad to see my hometown in the news.
What a bunch of cucks. Hope they catch the bastards. Edit: it was supposed to be fucks but I think it’s better this way.
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…
It’s not just a black player, it’s the black player. Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player in major league baseball.
I will be interested to know if it was stolen for its scrap value or because of racist backlash
I mean, they didn’t sell the scrap, they burned it in a trash can. Seems pretty obvious to me.
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.”
https://apnews.com/article/jackie-robinson-statue-theft-arrest-c959797761a726fe3611b1b4ee641e8f
