Vandalism in Cemeteries Seems to be Running Rampant -- What Can We Do?

I was sad to read a Facebook post by Judy G Russell (The Legal Genealogist) about this ...

Officials in Alabama are searching for unknown vandals who they say overturned or broke nearly 70 gravestones in a cemetery sometime last week, al.com reported.

Limestone County Sheriff Capt. Stanley McNatt told NBC News that the desecration affected nearly 70 percent of the tombstones at Hatchett Cemetery in Tanner, Ala.

Members of the Little Ezekiel Missionary Baptist Church, which maintains the cemetery, suspect the incident occurred sometime between Wednesday and Friday of last week.

Read the full article.

Sadly, this is more common than I would have thought!  This isn’t the only cemetery recently vandalized!  Here are other articles, all in the last month, about vandalism at cemeteries around the country!  These are articles about “unique” acts of vandalism.

Now I’m just mad!

• Vandals hit historic cemetery just before Veterans Day service
• Vandals Damage Cemetery
• St. Albans cemetery damaged by vandals
• Vandals hit Jewish cemeteries
• Vandals demolish tombstones in old Laurinburg cemetery
• Vandals hit cemetery
• Vandals hit historic Daphne cemetery

There are probably more articles and by this time, it was evident that cemetery vandalism was pretty common!

What can be done to prevent this from happening at other cemeteries? 

How do we “instill” respect for our ancestor’s final resting spots in our society?

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