St Kilda Rd Police Memorial for slain officers defaced with vile graffiti
A memorial dedicated to Victorian police officers killed in the line of duty has been vandalised overnight, with offenders using red spray paint to leave behind vile messages.
Police & Courts
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A police memorial dedicated to officers killed in the line of duty has been defaced with graffiti that read “the only good cop is a dead cop”.
Detectives say the St Kilda Rd Police Memorial in the city was vandalised overnight by an unknown offender or group of offenders.
Red spray paint was plastered across several plaques remembering police officers who have died in the line of duty.
“FTP” (f--- the police) and “the only good cop is a dead cop” were two of the messages sprawled across the memorial on Friday morning.
“Cops protect the colony” and “ACAB” — an acronym for ‘all cops are bastards’ — were also painted on the memorial.
A member of the public reported the graffiti to police about 7am on Friday.
Lord Mayor Nick Reece said his team moved swiftly to remove the hateful graffiti early on Friday morning.
“The City of Melbourne condemns this disgraceful hate speech in our community,” he said.
“Under our new clean city policy, offensive or racist material is removed within one hour of being reported.
“In line with this policy, our rapid response team has taken immediate action and erased the graffiti. We are doing everything we can to end this sort of despicable behaviour in our city.”
Emergency Services minister Jaclyn Symes said police deserved greater respect.
“No one wants to see this type of conduct in Victoria or anywhere,” she said on Friday.
“Victoria Police have an incredibly difficult job, they go about their job with great respect for the community and (are) motivated to keep people safe.
“I don’t think that they deserve that type of response.
“What I would take comfort in is that I think I share the views of the vast majority of Victorians who believe that Victoria Police overwhelmingly do a great job.”
Police on Friday appealed for anyone with information or footage of the incident to contact Crime Stoppers.
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