Thank heavens!
Borough President Adams is handing over hundreds of his own dollars to leaders of a Williamsburg church where a vandal peed on and broke two statues on Sunday. The cash donation will help the house of worship restore its religious monuments, and serves as a reminder that hate is not tolerated in the County of Kings, the beep said outside a neighborhood police station on Tuesday.
“Our message today is both a tangible one of contributing to the restoration of the statues, and a symbolic one,” said Adams, who spoke alongside Williamsburg Assemblyman Joseph Lentol and local Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim leaders. “Our joining together to respond to the incident is our way of stating that the level of anti-defamation, anti-Catholicism, anti-religious, and anti-human experience is something that is not tolerated in the borough of Brooklyn.”
The sacrilegious sneak took a leak on the two figurines inside the courtyard in front of Metropolitan Avenue’s Our Lady of Consolation Roman Catholic Church around 4 am on the first Sunday of Advent — the Catholic Church’s four-week season leading up to Christmas — and then pushed them down, shattering each when it hit the ground, said cops, citing surveillance footage.
And the blasphemous act, which officials are investigating as a hate crime, is not the first time vandals defiled the house of worship between Berry Street and Bedford Avenue.
In July, goons reportedly busted up effigies outside the church, roughly a year and a half after a two different yahoos broke statues there while trying to take a picture in front of the monuments in 2016. All told, nogoodniks have damaged the church’s statues six times in as many years, according to reports and the beep.
Adams, who said he is personally donating $500 to the house of worship during his announcement, called on all locals to stand up to bigoted offenses on behalf of their fellow residents, arguing those who are afflicted should not solely be responsible for righting any wrongs.
“When a swastika is painted on the wall of a synagogue, it should not have to be the Jewish community to paint over that swastika. When a Catholic church is damaged, it should not be someone of the Christian faith to replace it. When a mosque is damaged, it should not be the Muslim community to correct that damage,” he said. “It should be the groups who are not affiliated with those particular religious institutions, we must stand up and use our voices that we are our brother’s keeper.”
Cops described the suspect who recently sullied the statues as roughly 30-years-old, 6-foot, and 190 pounds, and said he fled towards Bedford Avenue wearing a dark colored pea coat, beige slacks, and sneakers.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577–8477. The public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. All tips are strictly confidential.
