The Oak Lawn Committee is looking for donations to help clean up the Legacy of Love Monument following recent incidents in which someone has written derogatory and threatening messages on the monument itself and on a nearby light pole in the corner of the traffic island on which the monument is located at the intersection of Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road.

“Someone has again vandalized and added more writing on the Legacy of Love Monument,” OLC volunteer Adam Murphy wrote in a post on the Friends of Oak Lawn Facebook page. “They’ve also added some hate speech comments on the traffic light pole on the island. Police have been notified.”

The first incident happened earlier this month, around June 13, when someone scrawled barely legible  “slogans” on the base of the monument, including “Code Red. Crimes against humanity” and “Decla war wit Dallas police” and “Arsones-cases intentioly seting families on fire.”

In this most recent vandalism attack, the graffiti include “Bomb Mexico City,” “Inocent people have II die II kill purgery Kill” and “They in Texas place wax figures of patints who are held hostage and potray scenes of death.”

There are more threatening messages as well: “Take police officers family hostage” and, on the light pole, “Start killing fagets on Ceader Springs.”

Which much of the graffiti is scrawled in black marker, broad, neatly-printed letters in what looks like white paint on the bricks surrounding the monument read “THE CHURCH OF BREAD OF LIFE.”

Murphy noted that the monument is made of a special type of limestone that requires a specific cleaning treatment, and that attempting to use other cleaning methods can seriously damage the stone. “We are making an effort to clean it off tomorrow,” he said in comments on the post. “$25k+ is worst case scenario [for the cost of clean-up] if we need to replace the stone.”

Murphy added that there is a city of Dallas police department camera positioned on the traffic island about 10 feet away from the monument and OLC is waiting for an officer to be assigned to the case and check footage from that camera. That could take about two weeks, he said, but added, “We have a good idea of who it is.”

That suspects appears to be a homeless man who had been “camping out” on the monument and in nearby alleyways recently.

Murphy said anyone interested in donating to help cover the cost of the clean-up and restoration can email him at AdamMurphy@DavePerryMiller.com for information. Donations are tax deductible.

— Tammye Nash