Dan Zak of the Washington Post posted this photo last night wondering how such a thing could happen – wind or some angry taxpayer who felt it necessary to destroy public property:
If you live in the District, you’re probably familiar with them and DZ illustrates:
They look bland and procedural and definitely of the post-Watergate era. And they look and feel sturdy. Like it would take a hurricane to snap one in half. Winds did reach 65 mph on Feb. 25 in the D.C. area, and the IRS says it has security footage of the ensuing decapitation-by-Mother Nature at the southwest corner of 12th Street and Constitution Avenue NW.
They will not show the footage to us.
Okay, so that’s an obvious non-denial denial. Some pointy-headed engineering types from the Universities of Maryland and Virginia that gusty winds can’t be ruled out but come on. They’ve been there since late 70s? What’s the useful life on one of those bad boys? It’s gotta be 40 years, no? Anyhoo, Zak got the opinion of a tourist from Lubbock, Texas who says it’s definitely vandalism, “Because it’s the IRS. [DUH, *eyeroll*]”
Actually he has quite a ways to go to get to the nearly $14 million that NC agreed to pay the IRS and isn’t even close to the $33 million that “Douche of the Decade” Joe Francis owed (that has now been dropped we should add) but a $3 million tax lien is nothing to sneeze at.