Pride Flags Destroyed Outside New York City’s Stonewall Inn
Police have released surveillance footage of three suspects and are asking for the public's help in identifying them.
New York City police area searching for three suspects who vandalized rainbow-colored Pride flags in a park outside the historic Stonewall Inn, the bar where a police raid in 1969 sparked the modern-day LGBTQ rights movement.
The incident occurred around 3:10 a.m. on Sunday when three men were walking past the Stonewall National Monument, which includes the physical site of the Stonewall Inn, and the area surrounding the inn, including nearby Christopher Park.
The suspect allegedly began ripping multiple Pride flags that were display on the fence, according to police.
Footage obtained by The New York Post, taken by a neighbor whose residence faces the park on Grove Street, shows the three men casually strolling down the block, snatching the flags off the fence one by one before strolling eastward on Waverly Place.
The NYPD has since released its own separate surveillance footage and is asking for the public’s help identifying the culprits. Two of the men are wearing white button-down shirts and light-colored pants, and another is wearing a black T-shirt and jeans.
Based on the surveillance footage, one of the men wearing white appears to have a short mustache and wavy, short-cropped brown hair, while the other, with dark brown hair, has a full beard. The third man, clad in black, is clean-shaven and appears to have black or dark brown hair.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident, which comes as the city celebrates Pride Month. Given the symbolic and historic significance of the Stonewall Inn and the national monument to the LGBTQ community, it would be reasonable to question whether the attack may have been targeted, in order to show displeasure or opposition to LGBTQ rights or visibility.
New York City Councilmember Erik Bottcher, who is openly gay and whose district includes the Greenwich Village neighborhood, posted images of the broken rainbow flags on Twitter on Sunday.
“Someone vandalized the rainbow flag display on the Stonewall National Monument on Christopher Street, snapping the flag sticks and throwing them on the ground,” Bottcher tweeted. ‘If anyone thinks this is going to intimidate us or weaken our resolve, they’re mistaken.”
Anyone with information about the incident at Stonewall Park is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at (800) 577-TIPS (8577). All calls will be kept confidential.
The vandalism comes at a time when anti-LGBTQ sentiment — or at the very least, anger at increased LGBTQ visibility — is on the rise, with some people seeing the mere presence of a Pride flag as triggering.
According to a recent report by the Crowd Counting Consortium, a research group that tracks the size of political protests, there have been an average of 39 anti-LGBTQ protests across the nation each month since June 2022, compared with just three per month from January 2017 through May 2022. That may also be attributable to a noted increase in rhetoric casting LGBTQ people, especially trans people and drag queens, as “groomers” or dangers to children, as well as increased activism by right-wing or white supremacist groups who have sought to break up LGBTQ-themed events.
Additionally, each year, especially during the summer months, there are often reports of vandalism of Pride flags — including the destruction of personal property — usually committed by those angered over what the flag is meant to symbolize.
For all the city’s pro-LGBTQ policies, and its large LGBTQ population New York City is not immune to these types of demonstrations. In May, a homeless man was charged with several hate crimes for allegedly defecating on an LGBTQ Pride flag and wiping his behind with another. Both flags had been hung as decorations at a Manhattan restaurant. Similarly, back in February, a Pride flag outside a Manhattan restaurant was set ablaze, as reported by NBC News.
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