New York City Mayor Eric Adams responded with anger and dismay on Tuesday after a group of anti-Israel protesters vandalized a World War I memorial in the city on Monday.
The monument, dedicated to the 107th United States Infantry, stands along Central Park in the Upper East Side. It depicts seven U.S. Army soldiers in action during a battle in September 1918 when they broke through the Hindenburg Line, the final and strongest defensive position of the German army. The vandalism occurred during anti-Israel protests near Hunter College and the Met Gala. Protesters affixed pro-Palestinian stickers to the memorial, spray-painted "Free Gaza," and burned the American flag at the site.
Mayor Adams, whose uncle died serving in Vietnam at age 19, pledged $5,000 of his own money to help apprehend the vandals. The NYPD Crime Stoppers also offered an additional $10,000 reward. "We're going to treat this crime with the seriousness it deserves," Adams stated in front of the monument. "I will not stand by while people desecrate memorials for those who fought for democracy and human rights, the very rights they are advocating for."
Video footage showed anti-Israel supporters placing a flag on the statue and using spray paint to express solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Unlike many other memorials that honor high-ranking military officials, this monument commemorates ordinary soldiers, known as Doughboys, under Army Gen. John Pershing's American Expeditionary Forces.
Senator Tom Cotton, a U.S. Army infantry officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, highlighted that the act violated the Veterans' Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act. The Veterans of Foreign Wars stated that while they support freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, they also uphold the rule of law and condemn actions that infringe upon the rights of others.
In a separate incident on the same night, protesters placed a Palestinian flag on a statue honoring Union Army Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman near Central Park, which was also defaced with spray paint. Authorities are searching for three suspects involved in that act of vandalism.