HH, I think that you might have got to the nub of this. The laws that you mention would no doubt group painting graffiti on a memorial and a railway carriage in much the same way. Of course there is discretion in the sanctions applied in each case, but in this one most of us would find them all wanting. We have here a memorial to prodigious duty and sacrifice which is not the way it is seen my many who pass by it. The "idiots" know this, and in defacing it manage to drive a wedge between those, like most of us here, who are outraged by their action and those who are at best indifferent to it.
The only immediate solution would seem to be protection; technical as hinted by parabellum, physical ie gated fences etc, or deterrent ie CCTV surveillance. The one thing this memorial has in its favour is physical proximity to the RAF Club. Could not a watch be mounted from there? A room given over to surveillance screens with local volunteers rostered, fed, and accommodated in it by the Club? They could then alert a preplanned and agreed response from the Police. I have a feeling that the RAF, past and present, needs to rise to this threat, for if they don't who will?
Last edited by Chugalug2; 6th Jun 2013 at 10:30.