Police are working to locate suspects who vandalized multiple memorials on Memorial Day or the days leading up to the national remembrance in acts described as “cowardly” and “incomprehensible.”
Vandals used red paint to scrawl communist symbols on a World War I memorial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“Vandalizing a memorial on any day is wrong, but it is incomprehensible to vandalize this memorial on a day in which we honor those who served and gave their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today,” Wendell Hissrich, the city’s public safety director, said in a statement.
Police officers are vigorously investigating the crime and anyone with information should contact them immediately, Hissrich said.
Mayor Bill Peduto said that whoever vandalized the memorial should leave the city.
In Boston, the Puerto Rican Veterans Memorial was vandalized.
Officers found two pillars knocked over and the Puerto Rican flag touching the ground.
“Our veterans are heroes that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. I’m disgusted by the act of vandalism,” Mayor Marty Walsh said in a statement.
The vandalism was disrespectful, Tony Molina, president of the Puerto Rican Veterans Monument Square Association, told the Boston Herald, “not because this is a Puerto Rican veterans memorial, this is a monument for veterans who gave their lives.”
“Whoever did it doesn’t realize it’s because of us veterans he can do that,” Molina added.
Police officers are working to locate those responsible.
