Officials Condemn Racist Vandalism At African Burial Ground National Monument Amid Spate Of Hate Crimes
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Officials gathered Monday at the African Burial Ground National Monument to decry racist vandalism at the site.
Watch: Officials Denounce Racist Vandalism. CAUTION: STRONG LANGUAGE
The Federal Protective Service is taking the lead on the investigation.
Investigators are reviewing surveillance video after a threatening message was scrawled there last week.
"These things and these issues have never gone away," said City Council member Jumaane Williams. "But we are at a time where it is at a fever pitch."
"This shocking and hateful act cannot diminish the spirit of African Burial Ground National Monument, nor silence the story it tells," said National Parks Service Manhattan Sites Superintendent Shirley McKinney. "The National Park Service takes acts such as this very seriously."
It was just one of five hate crimes in the past seven days.
CBS2 obtained exclusive video showing teens throwing a metal pipe through a synagogue window in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn on Saturday.
That same day, police released photos of two suspects wanted for allegedly drawing swastikas in Brooklyn Heights.
On Long Island, Suffolk County police say they removed a swastika from a congressional campaign sign in Stony Brook.
On Monday, Timothy Cardinal Dolan called for a stop to the hate.
"This is the way God intended us: That we all get along. We're in unity with one another. God's creatures, the animals, father, mother, baby, we're all one, we all belong to him. He's got his around us," Dolan said. "And to degrade that or violate that, harm that in any way, he cries just as much as we do."
The incidents took place one week after 11 people were shot dead in a Pittsburgh synagogue.
