PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Police are investigating after a World War I monument in Northeast Philadelphia was vandalized Friday night.
Just before 11 a.m. Saturday morning, authorities received a 911 call reporting that the Burholme World War I Memorial, located on the corner of Rising Sun and Cottman Avenue, had been vandalized.
Investigators said the World War I memorial was defaced with red graffiti reading: “Hamas is here.”
Burholme residents later worked with police and members of Philadelphia’s Community Life Improvement Program to clean up the monument.
“Our community respects our veterans and will never take lightly the cowardly actions of those who desecrated our memorial last night. Their actions were not protest, they were a crime against our community and our country’s veterans,” Aizaz Gill, president of the Burholme Townwatch and Civic Association, wrote in a statement Saturday.
Police said the vandalism is being investigated by the Northeast Detectives Division.
