THOU SHALT NOT!
Bx. gal busted in St. Pat’s ‘spray-paint’
A woman was busted this week for spraying graffiti on St. Patrick’s Cathedral during a New Year’s Eve protest, cops said.
Chriselle Vega, 20, was arrested Tuesday night for marring the façade of the landmark church with the letters “ACAB” — which stands for “All Cops Are Bastards,” only hours into the new year, authorities said.
Cops identified the graffiti vandal through surveillance records of the famed neo-Gothic Catholic cathedral that was built in 1879 on Fifth Avenue, just steps from Rockefeller Center.
Video reviewed by investigators showed that Vega wore a pink cape as she sprayed the letters on the church in pink, according to police sources.
At one point during the protest, she even confronted cops at the scene, but the officers had no idea at the time of her previous escapades at the church, the sources said.
Police recognized her during a protest at Washington Square Park at about 10:50 p.m. Tuesday, according to the sources.
Vega, of The Bronx, admitted to the act, the sources said. She was charged with making graffiti, cops said.
Roughly 150 protesters gathered outside the Midtown cathedral in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Cops were called after reports came in of the demonstrators blocking traffic at about 1:30 a.m. at 51st Street and Fifth Avenue, cops said.
Videos posted to social media show the group standing in front of police cars as sirens wailed. A few protesters could even be seen on the hood of some police cruisers.
The demonstration was organized by groups connected to Black Lives Matter Brooklyn and Justice for George.
The march started at the Stonewall Inn and stopped in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
No one was arrested during the demonstration, and the protesters eventually dispersed.
Afterward, the officers discovered the anti-cop 2-by-4-foot graffiti scrawled in pink spray paint on the front façade of the church.
Timothy Cardinal Dolan decried the alleged actions of Vega.
“You may recall that a similar outrage occurred last summer amid the sad violence afflicting American cities,” he said.
“At that time, I let it go, figuring I needn’t stoke the embers of anger that were burning throughout our country.
“This attack on St. Patrick’s was ugly and unlawful.”