Till memorial, others taking security steps amid vandalism

A commission behind a memorial for teenage lynching victim Emmett Till in Mississippi was forced to get a new sign with a bulletproof front and add cameras and alarms after repeated vandalism.

It’s one of numerous monuments to U.S. civil rights figures or events around the country that vandals have attacked through the years, forcing organizations and elected officials to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on repairs and surveillance.

There’s no movement to pass federal protections for such memorials. Advocates of the sites say their only recourse has been to rely on local and state vandalism and hate crime laws to prosecute suspects.

The need for protection came into focus again this month after security cameras captured white nationalists trying to film in front of the new Till memorial sign.