Police have identified three
teenage boys as responsible for the toppling of headstones in a
historic Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts.
One of the
teens, who all live in Melrose, a city near Boston, is facing felony charges of
damaging headstones and malicious destruction of property over $250. The
discovery of the vandals’ identities was announced Tuesday.
The other two
teens were present when the six headstones were kicked over at the Netherlands
Cemetery on Thursday morning are not being charged as of now. Only the
footprints of one teen were found on the toppled headstones and other ones,
according to the Wicked
Localnews website for North of Boston, citing local police.
The vandalism is
not being treated as a hate crime, according to police.
The incident was
a “bad decision by youths,” a police spokesman told the local news website, and
did not include elements of bias.
The Netherlands
Cemetery, formally called the Netherlands Cemetery Association and Roxbury
Mutual Society Burial Ground, is the third-oldest Jewish cemetery in
Massachusetts and contains about 475 graves, according to the Mayor’s Office.
It was established in 1859 by a group of Dutch Jews living in Greater Boston.
