Posted:

Update:

On September 14, 2011, Kevin Kenny, who works for the City, power-washed the graffiti marring our park. Photos of the park after cleaning can be seen on our Facebook page.

This week, a group of cowards crept into Penn Treaty Park in the middle of the night and defaced the statue of William Penn, the stone circles surrounding his monument, the old Treaty Tree area, and large areas of the walkway around the park. This vandalism will cost thousands of dollars to remove — if we are even able to do so. The stone that surrounds the monument and the monument itself is very sensitive, and paint is not easily removed from it.

To date, groups of pathetic, attention-starved vandals have hit the park many times. They have never risen to this level of destruction.

This is why the Friends of Penn Treaty Park are offering a $500.00 reward for information leading to the arrest of any individual connected to the recent graffiti incident at the park. Please call police with any information or email info@penntreatypark.org.

This act has threatened the remaining programs at the park for this year, as the cost of cleaning up after these criminals was not in our budget. Graffiti is not art. It is a crime. When a selfish, petulant person chooses to deface a monument to the founder of our Commonwealth at the place of its founding, it is a crime against all of us, not just the park.

Please view the graffiti in these photos or take a look for yourselves at the acts perpetrated against the park and all it stands for. It will make you angry. It will make you sad. It has certainly done so to the Friends. However, we will not stop until these individuals are caught and the monuments and the park are restored to their glory.