It was brazen. It was quick. It was stupid.
Shortly after 5 pm on Saturday, a bunch of kids descended upon the historic Morristown Green and sprayed black paint on the granite Patriot’s Farewell fountain.
They also defaced a beloved Christmas rocking horse, and pavement stones at the heart of the square.
Surveillance cameras, installed in 2018 after a spate of vandalism incidents, caught them in the act.
“We’ll call them young idiots. It’s now in the hands of the police,” Alice Cutler, president of the Trustees of the Morristown Green, said on Tuesday. The Trustees are a private entity that maintains the 2.8-acre expanse once trod by General George Washington.
Morristown Police Lt. Keith Cregan said on Wednesday the detective bureau is actively investigating the matter.
Cutler said the videos show what appear to be four males, perhaps ages 12 or 13, with a possible fifth accomplice on a skateboard.
They did their damage — Cutler estimates cleanup will cost at least $2,000–within a matter of minutes.
“We put so much money into making the Green a showplace. This makes me so angry,” Cutler said.
She said it’s bad enough when drunken bar patrons vandalize the Green, as happened in the 2018 holiday season, when the cameras caught a man absconding with a life-sized statue of a toy soldier.
“But there’s no excuse for this,” Cutler said of the youths’ graffiti spree.
The meticulously manicured Green affords respite to thousands of visitors every year.
It’s home to the popular Morristown Jazz & Blues Festival. The Morristown Uke Jam entertains passersby on warm Wednesdays. Generations have heard readings of the Declaration of Independence and met Santa Claus there.
But every orchard has a few bad apples.
Right after Thanksgiving, arms mysteriously were detached from two toy soldier statues. Graffiti painted near chess tables last summer cost $1,300 to remove, Cutler said.
A few years earlier, someone hacked Washington’s bronzed thumb from his statue. Historical markers have vanished, and vandals have dumped soap and motor oil into the fountain.
Cutler appealed to all who enjoy the Green.
“Keep your eyes open and be aware,” she asked. “And if you see something, call the police.”
That number is 973-292-6644.
This story has been updated with a comment from Morristown police.
Each comment had a point for me except the first that sees nothing wrong in kids who do not respect other people’s property – perhaps you need to have your own property destroyed before you care – I have loved the
Morristown Green for a long time and even if I am not there would like to know it is there for others to enjoy. Children or not they should be caught, given a fine and made to do community service to teach them the error of their way – if not corrected in kids it gets worse not better.
Oh would you relax. Stuff happens, it will get removed/cleaned, its not the end if the world. There are people out there that dont care about things that belong to them, it is what it is. Kids or not its wrong but lets not be so dramatic.
Treat this as a hate crime and prosecute all individuals to the fullest extent of the law.
This was a hate crime against a Christian holiday symbol. Unacceptable in this day of age.
Such a sad, sad day for Morristown. This sacred space, the Morristown Green, a private space for the public, maintained by a board of citizen protectors, is our’s to access at will and to cherish and, yet, some misguided, perhaps “thrill-seeking,” young people chose not to appreciate it but, instead, to deface it. A friend once said to me, in describing violent protests on our college campuses, that the protestors are ‘spitting in our cathedral.’ This is precisely the thought that came to my mind as I read the story about Our Green. Morristown’s “cathedral” is our town’s unique Green, where people gather all during the day and evening, where protests and celebrations are held, holidays acknowledged and celebrated, where even marriages are officiated, and jazz is heard, and chess is played, where children romp and adults reminisce….where history was made and where history is acknowledged in a variety of sculptures and plaques. One element of the sentence these youths receive must be a civic education, providing a thorough insight into who created the Green, who sustains it, and why, and the back story to all, to all, the monuments erected and plaques installed there. This “sentence” can serve to bring these young people to appreciate their access to the Morristown Green, access that is their right and their privilege.
My biggest concern is that these kids can’t spell correctly. Not even a four-letter word! That first one – huh?