(RightWing.org) – Veterans’ groups are outraged after anti-Israel protesters vandalized a First World War memorial in New York City. The monument to US soldiers was defaced with stickers and paint while extremists burned an American flag. NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) has joined veterans in condemning the desecration.
On May 6, left-wing protesters marched through New York City, planning to march to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and disrupt the Met Gala. However, on the way they passed the memorial to the 107th Infantry Regiment, New York National Guard, in Central Park. The well-known memorial is a striking nine-foot-high bronze statue showing seven American soldiers breaking through the last German defense lines in September 1918.
The leftists, showing a complete lack of respect for the dead, defaced the monument, plastering it with Palestine flag stickers and spraying “Gaza” on its stone plinth. Other demonstrators burned a US flag beside the memorial.
Veterans’ groups reacted furiously to the vandalism. AMVETS national director Joseph Chenelly slammed the protesters as “ignorant individuals” and called their “despicable acts” “maddening.” He added that when the perpetrators are caught they should be “ordered to learn their history.”
Duane Sarmiento, commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, pointed out that the 107th had fought for freedom, and said it’s “inexcusable and infuriating” that people exercising the right to free speech would show this disrespect to those who defended that right. An American Legion spokesman said that while the group supports the right to free speech they were “saddened and disappointed” by the damage to the memorial.
Mayor Adams held a press conference at the memorial and said he “will not stand by” while protesters assault war memorials. Adams, whose 19-year-old uncle was killed in Vietnam, has offered $5,000 of his own money as a reward for the arrest of the perpetrators on top of $10,000 from NYPD Crime Stoppers.
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