Photos: George Washington Statues Vandalized in New York

FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2017, file photo, pedestrians pass an exhibit titled "Arch" by Chi
AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File
Joshua Caplan

Two statues depicting George Washington, the United States’ first president, were defaced early Monday morning in New York City’s Washington Square Park.

The New York Post reports:

The two suspects — a woman dressed in all white with a white bow in her hair and a man in a black shirt and black shorts — fled on Citi Bikes, law enforcement sources said, noting there was surveillance video of the 3:20 a.m. incident.

The early 20th-century statues — one of Washington as the nation’s first president and another depicting him as general of the country’s Revolutionary War forces — bled red as they dripped with the still-fresh paint just before 8 a.m.

Remnants of the red paint-filled balloons that were tossed at them and the back side of the arch were left at the scene in Greenwich Village in Manhattan.

The city’s Parks Department has since removed the paint from the pair of statues of the country’s first-ever president.

“This does do damage — you can see bits of the statue all over me,’’ one worker said in an interview with the Post.

“It’s marble — it comes off,’’ he added.

The incident comes as Black Lives Matter protesters have targeted an array of monuments, including Confederate leaders and even presidents, in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Earlier this month, a statue of George Washington was torn down and draped in a burning American flag by protesters in Portland, Oregon.

On Friday, four people who allegedly attempted to topple a statue of President Andrew Jackson near the White House were charged with destruction of federal property.

On the same day, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at protecting federal monuments across the country. He has threatened prison terms of up to ten years for offenders.

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