Parking lot trashed, basketball rims removed

Repeated vandalism of Harrisburg Paul Emery Park prompted the park staff to take action - by taking away one of the park's draws for young people.

Maintenance workers at the park have taken rims off of the basketball goals in response to the discovery of a large sum of garbage scattered in the parking lot near the basketball court.

According to a park employee who asked not to be identified a group of vandals has been defacing property throughout the year.

"They even tried to set a restroom building on fire," the employee said.

Kashmere Barners, 20, responded to the removal of rims by uploading a video of himself on social media in which he approaches park security officer Mike Sullivan about the issue.

In the video, Barners offers to take the blame for the recent vandalism of the parking lot, saying "there are a lot of little kids that just love to play basketball and this is taking a lot away from them."

"It's absolutely ridiculous," Barners said Monday. "First off, in all the pictures I saw, there was nothing on the basketball court. And you have a park security guard for a reason; where was he at when this happened?"

The removal of the rims has prompted mostly negative responses from park goers. A sign has been posted beside the basketball court reading "court closed because of this reason" and depicting the parking lot littered with garbage. The sign has since been vandalized.