{"id":114349,"date":"2015-02-24T20:55:24","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T03:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/decapitated-dragon-head-under-lock-key\/"},"modified":"2015-02-24T20:55:24","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T03:55:24","slug":"decapitated-dragon-head-under-lock-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/decapitated-dragon-head-under-lock-key\/","title":{"rendered":"Decapitated dragon head under lock, key"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The \"Arc of History\" was transformed into a dragon Thursday, a prank many suspect was intended to mark the Chinese New Year. But it was short lived, as the head fell off its perch Friday morning.
The \"Arc of History\" was transformed into a dragon Thursday, a prank many suspect was intended to mark the Chinese New Year. But it was short lived, as the head fell off its perch Friday morning.<\/span>JERRY McBRIDE\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The elaborate Chinese dragon head that crowned the \u201cArc of History\u201d has gone the way of its notorious predecessor, the dinosaur head.<\/p>\n

On Friday afternoon, Durango Police Lt. Ray Shupe confirmed that the dragon head was in police custody.<\/p>\n

The dragon head\u2019s demise was quick and, in the end, without international incident. It debuted Thursday \u2013 in time for Chinese New Year \u2013 atop the \u201cArc of History,\u201d a $28,000 public artwork installed at the DoubleTree Hotel intersection last summer.<\/p>\n

Barely 24 hours later, harsh winds toppled it Friday morning, sparing the city of Durango the burden of removing it \u2013 a course of action that might have sullied Durango in the eyes of China.<\/p>\n

Shupe said that at 11:45 a.m., a passer-by called dispatch about the decapitated dragon head, which was lolling around in the breeze-battered median of the U.S. Highway 550\/160 intersection, threatening to tumble into oncoming traffic or seduce opportunistic motorists \u2013 bent on its capture \u2013 into dangerous driving.<\/p>\n

Police agreed that no one should chase the dragon head, and a city code enforcement officer who was in the area soon retrieved it.<\/p>\n

By noon Friday, the \u201cArc of History\u201d had reverted back to its usual headless form, which some Durango residents describe as \u201crock banana.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dragon head\u2019s outing atop the \u201cArc of History\u201d was brief and probably illegal. Still, many Durango residents saw beauty in the beast.<\/p>\n

On the Herald\u2019s website, Durango Mayor Sweetie Marbury said, \u201cI love the dragon head. It looks terrific so says the Mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Melinda Ice commented, \u201cI seriously doubt that the removal of that head will affect any relations with China. \u2026 That being said, it actually DOES enhance the looks of that hideous waste of taxpayers\u2019 money that they call art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shupe said the \u201cArc of History\u201d emerged from its day with the dragon head unscathed \u2013 a perhaps ironic reminder that when it comes to aesthetic justice, the arc of history may bend, but it will not break.<\/p>\n

He said the slain dragon head was in \u201cfair condition\u201d after its fall and hasn\u2019t been charged with anything. He said police aren\u2019t going to fingerprint the dragon head in order to discover who placed it atop the \u201cArc of History\u201d since the police are treating it like \u201cfound property.\u201d<\/p>\n

He denied that police had locked the dragon head in a dungeon, saying DPD\u2019s evidence room is \u201cjust a secured storage area for property that comes into the police department.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said if no one comes forward to claim the dragon head, it will be destroyed. Asked whether police would set it afire, Shupe said, \u201cNo. It will probably get thrown out.\u201d<\/p>\n

cmcallister@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chinese New Year decoration in police custody<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-114349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114349"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=114349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}