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Woman who allegedly objected to historical accuracy of Shaw memorial to get psych eval for throwing paint at it

A judge today ordered a psychiatric evaluation for a Quincy woman charged with tossing yellow paint at the 54th Massachusetts memorial across from the State House, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Rosemine Occean allegedly told park rangers who found her sitting nearby the newly despoiled bas-relief with yellow paint on her face, hands and clothing that the memorial was an "improper depiction of history."

A Boston Municipal Court judge ordered her sent away for a 20-day psych evaluation, the DA's office reports, adding three children from Little Suamico, WI had their iPads and Kindle damaged by the paint and that their mother told authorities they children were "devastated" by the incident.

The Dorchester Reporter reports another group of sad people are local 54th Massachusetts re-enactors:

"I think I feel a little sad for her because she may not know what the monument really stands for," [one re-enactor] said. "I won't judge her, that’s not my place. But I would like to see that person get some kind of a training course about what these men went through during the Civil War."

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

Is this Occean's 20, or Occean's 54? I lost track after Bernie Mac died

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their mother told authorities they children were "devastated" by the incident.

Devastated? May as well buy the coffins now - they won't survive the night.

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If my young child, while on vacation and minding her own business, had yellow paint thrown over her, destroying an expensive (likely her most expensive) personal possession in the bargain, then I think she might be fairly characterized as 'devastated'.

NotWhitey, you need to find a nice big rock to go climb under. There is no part of your involvement on this site that has ever added positive value or worthy comment. You are a boorish troll.

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^^^^^I second

Two kids are understandably shaken up by seeing someone vandalize a historic piece of public art that is a big part our society's heritage, and NotWhitey just makes fun of them. Wow. NotWhitey you are a coward and a bully. Do you feel strong when you write this? Do you feel proud? Funny?

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Because they're kids. They have no life experience, so they look at as "I was just sitting there and this scary lady broke my really cool iPad, that was scary and unpredictable and I didn't know that can happen!"

Adults might look at as, "Well, that's the city, we're lucky all that nutter was doing was throwing paint. She could have had a knife!"

I grew up in a fairly urban area, and I have to say, as a kid, the first few times you experience "crime" firsthand, it's jarring. The first time a classmate steals from you, the first time your family or a neighbor's family gets robbed, the first time you get a letter from the school that a man tried to snatch a classmate off the street- all terrifying.

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What are you - a kook? By breakfast the next day, your average kid would have forgotten it. Do you think children sit around contemplating the racist of mid-19th century America? I responded to the mother's over the top choice of words. Now be a good by and take your meds.

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maybe i am a kook, probably so by your definition. But do you really think seeing an adult boldly deface a historical landmark is something that does not have a lasting impact on a child? Hopefully I'm wrong, but I have to imagine your ethos of "they're kids, they'll forget it the next day" would change if we were talking about someone defecating on an American flag, or two guys making out

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At least she had some reason for her vandalism. Why don't they send kids who do "graffiti art" in for psych evals?

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Gracious! The precious snowflakes got paint on their iPads and Kindles? Horrors! (clutches pearls). Welcome to the city, cheeseheads. On the other side, I'm wondering what this poor deluded woman took as 'historical inaccuracy'. Did Shaw ride an ostrich?

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I'm thinking that seeing someone attempt to destroy a wonderful piece of artwork out of the blue was the traumatizing event the mother was speaking of.

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I'm sure children are traumatized by sculptures getting hit by paint every day. May I suggest that any trauma was more likely to involve their electronics?

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Now how do you feel? One of your most valuable possessions has been trashed!

I'm sure we would hear a LOT of whining about "capital punishment for vandals" if that happened.

Or, maybe, just paint a giant anus on your front door.

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we got paint thrown on us by psychotic strangers every night. Especially on vacation. And we loved it- it was a frickin howl dude.

We were tough like that back in the day, kid. It wasn't a weekend in the city without the whole family getting crapped on for no reason.

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people from Wisconsin are capable of being tough, dontcha know.

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...Ufda!!!

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IMAGE(http://rgifs.gifbin.com/1233928590_citizen%20kane%20clapping.gif)

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..and don't you raise your Kane to me!

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Kids are used to having colorful gunk thrown at them! Haven't you ever watched Nickelodeon? Besides, vacationing with my family as a kid was the stuff psychosis is made of!

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Good thing I don't know you on sight. I might toss a smoothie or a cup of iced coffee on your head - ruining your phone and work clothes. All in good fun, though!

Let's see what a tough ass you are then!

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Any chance I can talk you down off your cross? Please lighten up.

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Disney World + Sesame Street+Mr. Hollywood movie set. All that's missing are poorly paid workers in Mickey Mouse costumes roaming the Back Bay and Charles St., to compliment the wall to wall tourist buses. Maybe all 'locals' should be forced to wear big name tags [Hi! My name is...] to make the tourist and kids more comfortable?

I have a suggestion:

Explain to the kids that this woman is mentally ill, talk with them about mental illness, how it effects society, why it's a problem, why many mentally ill people are homeless, etc.

Explain to the kids Boston isn't an amusement park, it's a city with real people living it, and that they as tourist are guest.

I'm sure the kids will be able to deal with the horror they witnessed. We need to buck up in this country, including kids. We've become too soft and spoiled.

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All that's missing are poorly paid workers in Mickey Mouse costumes roaming the Back Bay and Charles St., to compliment the wall to wall tourist buses.

There are plenty of townsfolk in colonial garb to fill the niche.

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Thank God the defendant is black (with a few drops of yellow)! Until I saw the mugshot, this had potential to be the Joel Ward "Racist Boston" incident of the summer.

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so where do you get this information from? Never mind, it's in this morning's Globe.

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Ron, her mugshot was on many of the late TV news broadcasts last night.

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But, given the source and the strangeness of it, I would guess that you can't possibly translate it into rational thought.

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The memorial is a tribute to Robert Shaw and the 54th Regiment.

The 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was the first black regiment to be recruited in the North. Remember the very good movie "Glory" made about them?

I was wondering when someone would bring up what appear to be racial overtones in this incident. I mean, black or white, the woman is obviously deranged, but why did she pick THAT memorial?

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Which one would you have picked? Throwing paint on the Holocaust memorial down by the Blackstone Block would be kind of lame because it's kind of a large, sprawly thing, with no human figures. There's the starving Irish on Washington Street in front of the old Globe Corner Book Store (and Borders), but I think the pigeons have that one covered (literally). And then there's the Hungarian Monument in Liberty Square...but who the hell can find it? And then after that ....well what other memorials are there? The Comm Ave mall is more just a bunch of statoos. The 9-11 memorial....all the way out at Logan.

When you come right down to it, the 54th Regiment memorial is right there, opposite the State House, where all the tour buses stop. It's got recognizable human figures on it. You can easily walk right up to it. Hell I saw some iron workers sitting on the shoulders of the statues during a rally over the winter. If I was batshit, out of my tree I might just pick that one too, without any thought to the racial aspect. Location, location location!

Any racial aspect to it probably has more to do with this poor woman's mental problems, than any real racism. (As if racism isn't batshit in and of itself.)

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"I won't judge her, that’s not my place. But I would like to see that person get some kind of a training course about what these men went through during the Civil War."

Training Course to know what people went through? This person needs a psych eval, too.

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