Occupy graffiti vandalizing a historic NY church
Occupy graffiti was tagged on the plaque of Grace Church, on Broadway, near the Occupy encampment at Union Square.
The church, a fixture in NY since 1847, has been called “one of the city’s greatest treasures”, is a National Historic Landmark designated for its architectural significance and place within the history of New York City.
This is not the first church that has suffered Occupy damage.
In Dec. 17, OWS broke into the Trinity Church lot at Duarte Square, claiming they should have the right to “occupy it”.
Two churches that offered Occupiers housing after they were evicted from Zuccotti Park also suffered damage. One church had a lid to a baptismal font stolen and damaged, and another had a cross desecrated with urine. One of the pastors also had a laptop stolen.
On April 1, Occupy San Francisco broke into a Catholic church property at 888 Turk St., claiming they would be opening it as the “SF Commune” to provide free services to people of the neighborhood. They caused thousands of dollars of damage, tagging insults at police all over the building. George Wesolek, the Catholic Archdioscese spokesperson noted the building was to be used to help poor students:
“The next thing that we had proposed to use them for was to lease them out to appropriate folks, and then have a revenue stream – which would help the school and the educational ministry there, but also help the many students who need tuition assistance.”
“About 35 to 40 percent of students at that particular school need tuition assistance, because they come from low-income families,” Wesolek said, explaining the need for the revenue that would have been provided by leasing the building.
Occupy SF has claimed that they have seized another Archdiocese property which they will reveal on May 1.
Occupy SF: It’s ours, because we say it is…
Last Sunday, Occupy San Francisco seized a building owned by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, declaring it their new “commune”.
They sprayed anti corporate and anti police slogans all over the property, and caused thousands of dollars of damage. Police were forced to go in to remove them, arresting 75, and charging 74 with misdemeanor trespass.
OccupySF mocks the Archdiocese, defaces cross on banner with Anarchy symbol
A pro Occupy article at http://truth-out.org/news/item/8294-occupy-sf-commune notes:
”At least 22 school chairs were used to reinforce a barricade holding police out of the lot behind 888 Turk. Nearby, scrawled on a door:
‘When the cities burn down, we’ll all be warm.’
Occupiers were arrested room by room. According to police, ‘trespassers retreated into rooms, many of which were barricaded from the inside, while others closed doors to an interior stair well and retreated to the second floor.’ One person jumped off the roof and was arrested.
Occupiers claimed while not a bank, the Catholic Church was part of the “1%”, therefore seemingly, justifying seizing their property. An Archdiocese spokesperson said the building had been vacant for about 18 months and was slated to serve low income children as a high school.
According to the Occupy article, many of the Occupiers were not even from San Francisco. There is a sharing of personel from other areas of California (indicating the absence of numbers to sufficiently cover the various areas).
H/T to John Sexton at Breitbart for the following video of the event:
