The "cop killer memorial" that disgusted the nation has been torn down. The candles lit to memorialize Lawrence Campbell, the accused killer of officer Melvin Santiago, as well as the empty bottles of liquor, the balloons, and the t-shirts inscribed with messages of love to Campbell, are gone…
The shrine went up on Sunday, July 13 in Jersey City, New Jersey at Orient Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive. It appeared on the side of a red brick building that houses a mini-mart, a bar and residential housing. Lawrence Campbell ambushed the police officer that morning at the Walgreens drug store killing Santiago before officers shot him dead. Campbell lived in the neighborhood.
News of the shrine caused a furor when The New Jersey Journal first reported it…Mayor Steve Fulop called the memorial "disgusting."…In a statement released by his spokeswoman, Mayor Fulop took credit for having the memorial torn down…"I am not going to let a few residents pretend like they express the views of a great city like Jersey city," he said.
But residents who live near the shrine defended it. "There's two lives lost," said one man inside the Columbia Tavern. Another said it "bothered" him that the police took away the shrine. "Even though it was the wrong thing to do, there were two lives lost," he said.
"Jersey City Tears Down 'Cop Killer' Shrine," Associated Press, July 15, 2014
The shrine went up on Sunday, July 13 in Jersey City, New Jersey at Orient Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive. It appeared on the side of a red brick building that houses a mini-mart, a bar and residential housing. Lawrence Campbell ambushed the police officer that morning at the Walgreens drug store killing Santiago before officers shot him dead. Campbell lived in the neighborhood.
News of the shrine caused a furor when The New Jersey Journal first reported it…Mayor Steve Fulop called the memorial "disgusting."…In a statement released by his spokeswoman, Mayor Fulop took credit for having the memorial torn down…"I am not going to let a few residents pretend like they express the views of a great city like Jersey city," he said.
But residents who live near the shrine defended it. "There's two lives lost," said one man inside the Columbia Tavern. Another said it "bothered" him that the police took away the shrine. "Even though it was the wrong thing to do, there were two lives lost," he said.
"Jersey City Tears Down 'Cop Killer' Shrine," Associated Press, July 15, 2014
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