EDITORIAL – Make no assumptions about what a vandal looks like
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
I WROTE YESTERDAY about the bull sculpture that has been removed from Riverside Park because of ongoing vandalism. The patina has been worn down from repeated scrubbing to remove graffiti and other paint, and it has to be restored.
As everyone knows, we all tend to place our own interpretations on the words of others to suit our own beliefs. There were some thoughtful responses to the editorial, but there was also a broad assumption that the vandalism has been committed by what many like to call “creeps and lowlifes.”
Sure, street crime is part of the issue but that’s too narrow a view of it.
You don’t have to have a mental illness or an addiction, or be poor or homeless to commit vandalism.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
It can be easily argued loss of the (good) sense of community well-being can also be traced to the shenanigans happening at City Hall with questionable administrators’ choices and their way of doing things and their the enablers on council. Because I have a sense the common-place revolting vandalism of material things is somehow related to the less obvious white collar vandalism permeating our society.