[snootchiebootchies]

Who's Trying to Destroy Negro League Landmarks in Kansas City?

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...in-kansas-city

Since its founding in 1990, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, hadn't had any serious issues with vandalism—until last week, when its Buck O'Neil Education and Research Center was flooded after a water line on the second floor was cut and the water was turned on, dousing not just the second floor, but the first floor and basement as well.

One month prior, another Kansas City Negro Leagues landmark faced a similarly catastrophic crime: A suspected arsonist set the home of pitching legend Satchel Paige on fire in late May, leaving potentially irreparable damage. Both cases were far more serious than the graffiti tagging that typically plagues out-of-use buildings.

At the O'Neil Center, the museum staff responded to a series of alerts from the fire alarm panel early Friday morning, only to find water gushing down stairwells and seeping through ceilings, causing significant damage to a renovation that had begun in 2011 and was about a year from completion. The building's first floor—the area most damaged by the flooding—was just months from opening to the public.

"There has been a community investment in this project that goes beyond finance," says Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick of the renovation that so far has cost $4 million. "This was an investment of sweat equity. When we first started cleaning the building up, ordinary people from the community would come in, put their boots on and start gathering debris. A lot of people in Kansas City are hurting right alongside the Negro Leagues Museum, as we think about this very heinous attempt to damage the center."

...

"Why?" is the question that remains for police, and for the Kansas City community. Neither event is being investigated as a hate crime, partially because of the lack of evidence. "Break-ins are very difficult, absent a witness, surveillance footage or physical evidence," says Becchina, which is the case in both the Buck O'Neil Center and Paige house cases. Those with any information are urged to contact the Kansas City Police Department.