Flags Burned At Veterans' Graves, Replaced With Swastikas

ORCAS ISLAND, Wash. (AP) _ Vandals burned dozens of small American flags that decorated veterans' graves for Memorial Day and replaced many of them with hand-drawn swastikas, authorities said Monday.

Monday, May 28th 2007, 6:25 pm

By: News On 6

ORCAS ISLAND, Wash. (AP) _ Vandals burned dozens of small American flags that decorated veterans' graves for Memorial Day and replaced many of them with hand-drawn swastikas, authorities said Monday.

Forty-six flags were burned completely and another 33 were found in charred tatters Sunday in the cemetery, authorities said. Swastikas drawn on paper appeared where 14 of the flags had been.

Members of the American Legion on this island off Washington's northwest coast replaced the burned flags with new ones Sunday afternoon.

The vandals repeated the stunt on Memorial Day after a guard left at dawn, the San Juan County sheriff's office said. This time, the vandals left 33 of the hand-drawn swastikas.

``This is not an act of free speech. This is a crime,'' Sheriff Bill Cumming said in a statement released Monday afternoon.

Sheriff's department officials declined to comment further on Monday.