this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 136 points 2 years ago (5 children)

He's 27 and claims he didn't know how old they Colosseum is?! Bullshit. He's only apologizing because he got caught.

[–] nogooduser 96 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Even if it was true, why is he carving his name into anything that he doesn’t own!

[–] Odusei 127 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

He's English. We're lucky he didn't steal it and stick it in the British Museum.

[–] Iballl 18 points 2 years ago

Do you remember when the British robbed everyone in the world? What a spree that was! What a spree.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I sometimes wish there could be a button for "I chuckled at that!"

[–] Sallp 37 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Is that not what up voting is for.

[–] Drunemeton 14 points 2 years ago

That’s just one of its many uses!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

iirc upvoting is supposed to be for good content that fits the magazine and promotes discussion, regardless if you agreed with it or didn't like it. ofc no one ever uses it like that ever, lol

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

That's how it was on Reddit, and idk about lemmy, but given you're a kbin user too: the kbin upvote is actually a like button. It's called "favorite". You use boost for your use case.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Here to plug one of my favorite podcasts: Stuff the British Stole (no affiliation)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

I have no idea how this happened, but I originally read that as Stuff (verb; as in cramming something into something else) the British Stole (as in a priest’s scarf/vestment). So I essentially read it as “cram something into the British scarf”.

Brains are weird.

[–] bendak 33 points 2 years ago

Not just his age: he was inside it, so he had waited in line, paid for it, and was seeing the ruined stone structure up close. No way could he not know it was really, really old.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Agreed. What he actually didn't know was that there was a 15k euro fine and a five-year prison sentence.

[–] solarview 5 points 2 years ago

Well, now a lot more people are aware of the serious consequences of defacing iconic cultural heritage, thanks to that idiot. So there's a silver lining at least.

[–] democracy1984 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Honestly, I think he should just get the fine and maybe some community service. It's not like he did some terrible evil thing, he simply caused a tiny amount of damage to huge ancient structure.

Why should he lose 5 years of his life over something simple like this? Just give him a big fine that makes him regret it, and he won't do it again.

[–] DreamlandLividity 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I would give him 2 year probation/suspended sentence if it is his first crime. Does not need to ruin his life but make the warning hella clear.

If he vandalizes things regullarly, then probably some actual prison time.

[–] MercuryUprising 9 points 2 years ago

I have no idea how he didn't catch a complete beat down. I wouldn't be able to restrain myself if I saw this shit in person.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Some people, as unfortunate as it is, can be honest and sincere by saying that they didn't know how the colosseum is.

[–] BeardyGrumps 58 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Reminds me of the time we first visited Venice. Wife and I were admiring the splendour of St Marks Square (Piazza San Marco) and were stood next to some American tourists and overheard one say, "Oh my god this place is amazing; can you imagine how great its going to be in a few years when they finish it." There was zero construction work going on......

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The first time I was at St Marks Square some Euro dude stripped to his underwear and started sunbathing. Police showed up and told him to put clothes on.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (3 children)

In some countries like Spain it is perfectly legal to be fully naked in any public space as long as you are not being sexually explicit. The Euro dude likely assumed this was the case in Italy as well -- I'm actually surprised that they had a problem with somebody in their underwear; it sounds prudish.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

I don't know if it was time/place. This was early '80s and I was about 11 years old. I just thought it was pretty funny.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

In Germany it can be an administrative offence, §118 OWiG, "Public Nuisance":

  1. Whoever commits a grossly offensive act which is apt to disturb or endanger the public and to prejudice public order shall be deemed to have committed a regulatory offence.
  1. The regulatory offence may be sanctioned by a regulatory fine unless the act may be sanctioned in accordance with other provisions.

It's our "shout fire in a theatre" paragraph and its unspecificness makes for volumes of juridical precedent. I liked the old title better, "Grober Unfug", which more or less translates to "grand monkey business".

In any case cops would first have to check whether the public (not just any random person, them included) is disturbed. Though I don't think that precludes them from telling them to cut it out, that's an inalienable right of any German citizen, police or not.

[–] JackGreenEarth 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They can tell them to cut it out, but they can't tell them to cut it out in the name of the law, which they would be doing if they were dressed as a police officer at the time and didn't specifically clarify.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Can they officially instruct them (belehren) that their private self would tell them to cut it out, or is that abuse of office?

[–] LollyActionGinger 1 points 2 years ago

For about a year I worked back and forth between Scotland (where I live) and herronberg (sorry for misspellings?). Gorgeous town. I hope to visit again . I know it’s weird to say it with your comment but I’ve never had the chance to say it to an actual German person, your country is fucking beautiful.I’ve had a chance to visit a couple of other places but I don’t know how to spell their names. Phonetically can say them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

They probably thought the piazza lacked some McDonald's and Starbucks.

[–] stanleytweedle 45 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

So he wouldn't have been embarrassed if he had defaced a newer building.

Sounds like he wouldn't mind a bunch of Italians scratching their name into his house.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 years ago

Makes sense. Cause it would have been perfectly OK if he carved his name into, say, something at Disney World, or a stranger's house, since those are newer structures...

[–] Spacebar 37 points 2 years ago (1 children)

So he'd scratch his name on the glass of a bus stop, and that would be ok? How about carving his name in a tree?

No one give a f* about your mark.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

At face value, you're right. His mark is pointless, and in the colosseum case, degrading even.

But a lot of ancient buildings are nowadays studied for the marks found on them. If you squint your mind's eye a bit, you can even imagine that some of the cave paintings that we nowadays admire are nothing but a testament to some dude's wish to leave their mark. No one cared until someone started to care.

Funny how relative all these things are, right?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

This gives me so many mixed feelings. 🤭

[–] Yoz 25 points 2 years ago

Britishers after colonizing a counrry

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 years ago (3 children)

What a complete knob. That's like saying you didn't know Michael Jackson was a pop star, or that the Pyramids were tombs for kings, pathetic.

[–] FlyingSquid 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That man is so embarrassing.

[–] NABDad 3 points 2 years ago

Proof that you can be a successful neurosurgeon and a complete moron.

[–] sabbah 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Trust me, some people don't.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

i can think of a brain surgeon who thought the pyramids were grain silos.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

I bet they wouldn't think it's ok to carve their name on them though

[–] postmateDumbass 18 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Is he trying for American citizenship?

[–] shankrabbit 1 points 2 years ago

Hey now, I resemble that remark.

[–] zombuey 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Can we just throw this dude in the colosseum and get an example of how it was historicly used. I dont think this ones contributing much else.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If the Colosseum is still standing in another 2000 years, people will be pointing at that graffiti and saying "Look, people in the 21st century were idiots just like us," just like we do with the surviving Classical graffiti. In a sense, he's participating in an ancient tradition.

[–] Buddahriffic 3 points 2 years ago

We should add a "were drawn and quartered here for defacing the Roman Colosseum." Then people will think we're hardcore like that and they'll also know what we called the building and the people who built it.

Or they'll think that's the name of one of the headless statues in the area and that we punished people who stole the head from statues by drawing artwork of them while forcibly confining them in this nameless building that just happened to be here when time started in 500 years because it's the Idiocracy future.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Tourists have been carving their names into shit for - and I'm not exaggerating here - thousands of years. I"m having a hard time finding evidence for this now, what with most of my searching only returning content for this particular modern incident, but I swear I've seen documentaries where they show ancient people doing, essentially, the same thing.