WASHINGTON — QUESTION:
Was the New York City 9/11 Memorial defaced during recent protests?
ANSWER:
No.
SOURCES:
Kate Monaghan Connolly- Senior Vice President of Communications- 9/11 Memorial and Museum
New York City Police Department- Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information
PROCESS:
Over the last 12 days, WUSA9 and the Verify team have reported on businesses and monuments vandalized during George Floyd demonstrations.
But we’ve also alerted the public to fake photos being circulated, like a viral photo of the Lincoln Memorial vandalized, that we verified as false, or of National Guard members sleeping on the streets in D.C., which was also false.
That’s why when we started seeing people upset on Twitter claiming that protesters graffitied the 9/11 memorial in New York City, our Verify researchers flagged it as possible misinformation and went to work to get the truth.
Straight from the source, a spokesperson for the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City told us, "that is false, the memorial has not been graffitied or vandalized."
We asked the New York City Police Department if they had any reports of vandalism or graffiti from the memorial since protests began. They confirmed they have none on file.
So, we can verify that the memorial wasn’t defaced.