h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The parents of April Jones watched the demolition of the house where she was probably murdered today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-30074199

Her Mum says (understandably) that she wouldn't want a memorial garden in place of the house.

13 Cromwell Street, Gloucester no longer exists, but a memorial garden does. 13 Cromwell St is the place where Fred and Rose West murdered at least 11 women.

Big sites like The World Trade Centre by virtue of their size and the number of victims seems to be a different sort of site.

What CAN you do with the site of a murder?

PP.

Sell it would be my suggestion.

Black mail would be mine.

Unfortunately, there are tacky people who would try to make money from other people's misfortunes. I heard about someone trying to get hold of Jeff Dahmer's refrigerator .

Turning the lot into a garden would be respectful of relatives of the dead.

Well look what they did for the Tower.
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Haul.

~jwf~

Are you talking about the new World Trade Center, or the Elizabeth Tower? or perhaps the leaning tower of Pisa?

Plenty of people get murdered in residences which are allowed to stay standing. I wonder what criteria is used to determine whether a building gets demolished?

I suspect that local or national notoriety has a lot to do with it.

PP.

There is a difference between sites on individual murders where the victims family should decide and sites of mass murder like the World \Trade Centre, Belsen etc. that should be commemorated as a lesson for future generations

It basically depends on the level of public outcry. If enough people kick up a stink to have it demolished, chances are it will be.

We got tickets to a circus performance at a theatre this summer in Moscow. When we got to the theatre we realised that it was the place where a whole theatre full of people were taken hostage 10+ years ago, a situation which went on for a number of days and did not end well.

There's a memorial outside, which is covered with flowers. And they are building a church next door, which may, or may not, have something to do with it.

They've renamed the theatre, and they have to have totally refurbished it inside, and circus performances for kids are not what they used to put on. And part of me thinks, well, it's good that something quite joyful is happening there. And to an extent, I do get that if the theatre was closed and bulldozed it could be seen as letting the terrorists win.

But the other half of me felt it was disrespectful and more of me was completely freaked out by the whole idea of sitting in that auditorium, and we won;t be going back I don't think.

Clearly many people feel the same, because the company is having to work quite hard to get people to come - there were a lot of 'extras' in the tickets which were already discounted. Like free ice cream and photos with clowns.

Just a thought, what about historical sites and battlefields? sites of execution (Tyburn) the Dorset gibbet sites (you will see them as they are marked by a red painted sign post). The sites like Tower of London the list is endless. People flock to visit them now, people died dose it matter when respect should be paid to them all. Are modern atrocities more important than older ones.

I misread this question, and I thought you meant an episode like 'Spock's Brain" from the original Star Trek.

What would I do? Well, I wouldn't put it on the boxed set.

Modern atrocities aren't "more important" than old ones. But perhaps they are best handled differently. For obvious reasons.