Green-Wood Vandalized: Please Help With Repairs Today
The following is adapted from a blog post by Green-Wood's historian Jeff Richman. Click here for the full account.
Tuesday morning started out like any other summer day at Green-Wood. About 90 men and women who work on the cemetery grounds reported for work and headed out to mow the lawns, trim the grass, and weed the gardens. But, something was not right, as Ken Nielsen, acting foreman of the south zone, discovered. And worker after worker soon learned the sad truth: a very sick individual, or individuals, had vandalized 43 memorials and monuments of the dead.
Green-Wood is in a rather unique position. Cemetery vandalism is a fact of life--it happens across America every day of the year. But, at Green-Wood, we have a high cast iron fence that surrounds our 478 acres and limits access by those up to no good. We have an around-the-clock, 24-hour car patrol of the grounds. We have video cameras mounted throughout to discourage vandals. But, sadly, no cemetery security system is a guarantee against vandalism.
I have been visiting Green-Wood since 1986, and, while I recall some incidents of vandalism, I cannot remember anything on this scale or close to it. Gravestones were pushed over and shattered.
Society has many duties. Certainly one of those is to protect those who cannot protect themselves. And, who is less able to protect themselves than those who have passed away? So, when mindless vandalism like this occurs, society, and all of us, have a duty to protect these memorials. Although neither Green-Wood Cemetery nor The Green-Wood Historic Fund have any legal obligation to repair vandalized monuments, we are stepping up here and will be repairing each and every one of them. We also have been contacting the families of those whose graves were desecrated.
