Amid all the rest of the abuse of police afoot across the country is this story.

Less than 24 hours after New Orleans Police Officer Vernell Brown Jr. was buried, vandals struck, damaging the eternal flame honoring fallen officers at Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery.

Officials had no immediate estimate of the cost of the damage, but the vandals pried off and destroyed the metal vessel housing the gas-powered flame. It is the centerpiece of the Louisiana Law Enforcement Officer Memorial.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Matt Patin, executive director of the non-profit memorial, said Sunday (July 26). “It’s sad.

“We do a lot of work with the family members of the officers that are on the memorial. It’s hallowed ground for them, as well as for the law enforcement community itself. So, to have somebody come in and essentially destroy it, that says a lot about their character.”

Brown, who was injured in a July 12 traffic incident and died five days later,was buried Saturday at Lake Lawn, where tents for his memorial service still stood Sunday adjacent to the memorial at 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. The 17-year veteran officer was training two NOPD recruits when they stopped to investigate a vehicle fire on U.S. Highway 90B near the Interstate 10 East split around 5:30 a.m. Two cars approaching the scene from behind collided, sending one crashing into Brown, investigators said. No charges have been announced in connection with the officer’s death.

The wasn’t Vernell Brown’s grave, of course, and Brown’s death was – so far as we can tell – an accident. There was no reason why his death would occasion such an attack on the police.

This is just hatred of the cops at work.

The rest of us shouldn’t have to put up with it, but to do otherwise is racist, or something.