A 25-year-old man from Denver has been arrested in connection with a “criminal mischief pattern” involving the deliberate removal and damage of LGBTQ Pride flags in New York City’s West Village neighborhood, police said Tuesday.
Patrick Murphy was charged with a hate crime and criminal mischief after the incident on June 10, when multiple LGBTQ Pride flags displayed at the Stonewall National Monument were vandalized.
Police said they are investigating two other vandalism cases that targeted LGBTQ Pride flags outside the monument in June, which is Pride Month.
On June 15, several transgender Pride flags were deliberately removed and damaged at the monument. And on June 18, an unidentified person removed multiple Pride flags at the monument. No suspects have been apprehended in either case.
The Stonewall National Monument is across the street from the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar that was the site of a June 1969 uprising widely considered to be a turning point in the modern LGBTQ rights movement. In 2016, the bar and the adjacent Christopher Park were designated as a national monument, making them the first LGBTQ space in New York City to receive landmark status.
Last week, a 52-year-old woman was attacked while she was jogging just a mile west of the monument at Hudson River Park. Police said she was approached by a person who made an anti-LGBTQ remark and then struck her in the face. The woman fell to the ground and sustained minor injuries. Police released a security image of the attacker and have asked for the public’s assistance in identifying the person, who ran away.
This latest incident is one of several attacks against LGBTQ people, establishments and symbols in New York City over the past year.
In February, a woman was arrested and charged with multiple hate crimes after she allegedly torched an LGBTQ Pride flag hanging from a restaurant. In May, a man was caught defecating on a Pride flag in Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighborhood. In December, two people were arrested after a group of protesters allegedly vandalized New York City Council member Erik Bottcher’s apartment building with graffiti that included homophobic slurs.
