42 Headstones Found Toppled Over, Police Say not Vandalisim
Some 42 tombstones were discovered toppled over in a Jewish Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, but police and cemetery managers say it was not vandalism. Despite this local elected officials are calling for an investigation.
A Jewish couple out for a Sabbath stroll discovered a cut fence at the Washington Cemetery on Bay Parkway in the Midwood section of Brooklyn and after Shabbos they called alerted Boro Park Shomrim as well as local elected officials.
A nighttime search revealed scores of toppled over headstones, some as old as 100 years and others much newer, along with a section of barbed wire fence cut open.
“It definitely was not vandalism,” Marisa Tarantino, general manager of the Washington Cemetery on Bay Parkway in Midwood, told reporters on Sunday. “The older sections, as the stones wear, they do fall over or are unstable,” she continued. “What we do is we lay them across the grave to keep them memorialized rather than taking (them) away.”
A police spokesman agreed.
“There’s no evidence of vandalism,” the spokesman said. “In conference with managers of the cemetery, it appears to be a result of neglect of maintenance combined with environmental factors, such as the soil giving way.”
Though Assemblyman Dov Hikind did not agree, pointing at a section of missing fence he said “Someone cut this? Who cut it? Why did they do it? Just to have fun?”
“Nobody wants to jump to conclusions,” Hikind said. “In light of everything going on in the country, we wanted to see what this was all about.
Crazy
What kind of way is that to maintain a Jewish cemeter? The people running the cemetery should be investigated too.
DJ
And so should that “Police Spokesperson” who is complicit in a Hate Crime cover-up!
Milhouse
Someone cut this? Who cut it? Why did they do it? Just to have fun?”
Come on, that’s an easy one. Teenagers who want a way to get in to drink/smoke/do what teenagers do in private.
Hossid
How did that happen by chance?! Hasn’t happened in 100 years but no can’t be vandalism
Milhouse
Where on earth did you get the idea that it hasn’t happened in 100 years? The cemetery management has explained exactly what happened: nothing. Matseivos fall down by themselves, and if nobody pays to reinstall them all the management does is lay them over the kever. The people who reported this didn’t know that.
Nancy Hanks
If Nancy Hanks
Came back as a ghost,
Seeking news
Of what she loved most,
…she would be appalled
at what she’d she here,
Because truth and honesty
Is what she taught
To her little Abe,
whom she held so dear.
Maybe she will haunt these hudlums,
And teach them a lesson or two.
They should mess
with the grave of a Jew.
Uncle Mendel
If not vandalism, what is it, art?
Milhouse
Read the article. The management explained exactly what happened, and there is no reason in the world to suspect otherwise. Hikind is just being a showman.
Moishe pipek
It is called poor maintenance. There is no funds probably to replace fallen tombstones..
wassup girrrrrrrrrrrl?
i agree
DAVE
why is Kalman Yeger at the press conference and Chaim Deutsch isn’t.
TZIVIA PEKKAR.[C.H]
B.H Of course it is vandalism. One to two headstones can be accounted for, but so many were toppled over, and in copy cat of other cemetaries. Needs investigating. Rewards help.
Milhouse
NO headstones were toppled over. They fell by themselves, not on one day but over the course of a long time. What did you think happens to old kevorim that nobody has paid to maintain?
Moishe pipek
If someone wants to do good let him start a fund to restore the tombstones not to second guess the police
crown heights resident
Denial of AntiSemitism prevents the police from taking appropriate action,
Andrea Schonberger
Now I get it–those poor stones felt like toppling over just for the fun of it. Well, when the police catch the person/persons who did this they can tell that story to the judge and see how far they get…all the way to jail.
Milhouse
Stones fall over all the time. Did you think they stay up forever all by themselves?
Anonymous
The police do not deny AntiSemitism because they a are professional people (and according to chalocha a professinal person is beleived) The only ones denying is people who deny reality.
Milhouse
The police do deny it. They say they have no reason to suspect anything here, so why do you think otherwise?