Boston police investigate ‘anti-American’ desecration of war memorials on July 4

City Councilman Ed Flynn looks at the monument in Boston Common that was defaced on July 3. (Staff photo by Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)

Boston City Councilman Ed Flynn, a U.S. Navy veteran, condemned a “heinous” hate crime in which several monuments in the Common and Public Garden were defaced with “anti-Semitic and anti-American” graffiti on the eve of Independence Day.

Flynn visited the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common on Friday, which is dedicated to the city’s U.S. soldiers who died in the Civil War. Despite the efforts of city cleaning crews, the messages “Free Palestine” and “Death to America” ​​were still visible on the monument, steps and benches.

“To desecrate and destroy monuments to American soldiers and sailors and our veterans on July 3 and 4 is beyond disappointing,” said Flynn, wearing a U.S. Navy baseball cap. “This is disgusting and there should be no place in society for this type of hate crime.”

Flynn said he is committed to making arrests. If there is enough evidence to bring hate crime charges against the perpetrator(s), he supports that and would work to ensure that the acts of vandalism are also prosecuted in this way.

“I believe that targeting the Jewish community with horrific messages and also targeting American veterans is a hate crime,” Flynn said.

A Boston Police report classified the vandalism, which occurred on the night of July 3, about 10 minutes before the start of the Independence Day holiday, as a “hate/bias” crime and was referred to the police department’s civil rights unit.

About six “unknown” suspects were captured on surveillance cameras, but no arrests had been made as of Friday evening, the report and a police spokesman said.

Upon arrival, an officer calling the guard noticed “15 benches surrounding the Soldiers and Sailors Monument that were defaced with graffiti reading ‘Death to Amerikkka,'” the police report said.

The message apparently referred to the KKK (Ku Klux Klan), a far-right white supremacist terrorist group, and was particularly conspicuous as it was scrawled on and around a monument dedicated to the Civil War that led to the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Flynn said he was unsure what the reference meant in terms of the way it was portrayed in the anti-American graffiti, but he interpreted it as a message of “division,” “hatred” and “violence that has no place in our city.”

The same message was scrawled on the monument in the same red paint, along with another that read “Free Palestine.” The monument was also covered “everywhere” with stickers that read: “Resist until victory and free Palestine.”

While the police report only refers to the vandalism that occurred on and around the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Flynn pointed to photos he posted on social media showing similar messages painted on the equestrian statue of George Washington in the Public Garden and on the Public Garden pedestrian bridge.

The respective messages are: “End Zionism” and “Liberate Gaza”.

Mayor Michelle Wu said at an unrelated event on Friday that police are investigating the incident.