(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) The Washington Monument was closed Tuesday after a man vandalized the iconic obelisk on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall, writing a profane message with red paint, Forbes reported.
Individual graffiti’s the Washington Monument with “Have U Been F*cked by this?” on 9/20/22 #viral @WashProbs @nbcwashington @fox5dc @washingtonpost #WashingtinDC #DC #BreakingNews @Storyful @StoryfulNews pic.twitter.com/aNGynYzDou
— dcitty (@dcitty) September 20, 2022
A male suspect was immediately detained.
“The United States Park Police has an adult male in custody for vandalizing the base of the Washington Monument with paint,” U.S. Park Police reported.
The suspect, who has not yet been named, was taken into custody after throwing paint at the monument and writing the message: “Have u been f***ed by this ↑” followed, in smaller text, by “Gov says tough s**t.”
The National Mall National Park Service said it they would begin restoration immediately.
Our expert team is aware of the issue and will get to work first thing in the morning. https://t.co/rHqMxgL4KG
— National Mall NPS (@NationalMallNPS) September 21, 2022
“Our expert team is aware of the issue and will get to work first thing in the morning,” said a message posted on the NPS Twitter acccount.
It noting that removal of the paint would likely take several weeks.
Unpatriotic vandals have profaned numerous monuments in recent years, the most prominent assaults coming in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd riots.
At that time, they vandalized the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial and the Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski statue in Freedom Plaza.
That same summer, there was a concerted effort across the nation to cancel all monuments that recalled what some percieve to be America’s racist past—sometimes even those who fought on behalf of the slavery abolition movement but were denounced as stereotypical “white saviors” or enablers of systemic, capitalist oppression.
At that time, a leftist task force commissioned by the D.C.’s local government recommended renaming, relocating or adding context to dozens of monuments, schools, parks and buildings because of their namesakes’ participation in slavery or racial oppression.
The task force, selected by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, recommended remaking the monuments to attack “key disqualifying histories, including participation in slavery, systemic racism, mistreatment of, or actions that suppressed equality for, persons of color, women and LGBTQ communities and violation of the DC Human Rights Act.”
