New York Daily News

‘No Polish’ scrawled on B’klyn statue

- Wes Parnell and Thomas Tracy

Vandals trashed a statue of a revered Polish Catholic priest in Brooklyn’s McCarren Park, police said Wednesday.

Garbage was strewn around the statue of the murdered Rev. Jerzy Popiełuszk­o near the corner of Nassau and Bedford Aves. and the words “No Polish” were scrawled on the stone, cops said.

A woman saw a picture of the vandalism on social media and alerted police at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday, authoritie­s said.

The NYPD was unable to catch the vandals on security footage, police said.

Polish Consul General Adrian Kubicki told the Daily News that the vandalism took place Monday.

“It’s happened before so now we know someone has a problem with this statue here,” said Kubicki, who was visiting the monument.

After it was first erected, the statue was spray-painted with the names “Stalin” and “Lenin,” Kubicki said.

Later, the monument’s head was severed and replaced. The original head is now housed in St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Greenpoint.

Father Popiełuszk­o was kidnapped and beaten to death in Poland in 1984 for his work in the Solidarity movement in the then-Communist country. Three men in the Polish secret service were convicted of his murder.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States