Lincoln Memorial Vandalized With Green Paint [Video]

The Lincoln Memorial is currently closed after it was discovered to have been vandalized with green paint Friday morning.

A late Thursday visitor spotted green paint splattered all over the statue of Lincoln and around the floor at around 1:30 am. There wasn’t any kind of graffiti on the statue. No words or symbols were written. Just random splashes of green paint, News4 reported.

Though there are surveillance cameras at each corner of the monument, authorities didn’t say whether they managed to capture the Lincoln Memorial vandal on tape.

The memorial will open after the National Park Service cleans the statue. They’ll get started Friday morning, but there’s no telling when they’ll be done.

“I have no idea who would want to do something like that,” said morning runner Scott Arndt. “To me, it’s defacing America. It’s not just defacing the Lincoln Memorial, but it’s something against all of America.”

“People come from all over the world, and to show that they can’t get into one of our national landmarks because somebody vandalized it is kind of a black mark on our country,” said another jogger, Keith Gillespie.

American monument vandalism sounds like a pretty unimaginable taboo, and indeed, it’s a pretty rare thing to happen.

NPS spokeswoman Carol Johnson told NBC News that other than three distinct cases of vandalism over the past 20-some years, she can’t recall such a thing ever happening.

In 2007, an oily substance was found in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, which was determined to be an act of vandalism instead of an accident by police. It took a few weeks to remove it.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was again vandalized in 1993 when the directory stands at the entrance were burned, and in 1988, swastikas were found etched into two memorial panels.

The Lincoln Memorial is open 24 hours a day.

What do you think should happen to the Lincoln Memorial’s vandals if they’re caught?

[Image: Victor Grigas]