By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
Neither the NYPD nor the NYFD were willing to comment publicly about a wanton act of vandalism that occurred this week at Ground Zero of the 9/11 Memorial.
Calls and emails to both agencies were not returned.
It’s not too difficult to figure out why.
There were 343 New York City Firefighters murdered near the vandalized site on September 11, 2001.
There were 23 New York City Police officers and detectives killed on that horrible day.
Jonathan Andrew Tijerina, 31, was arrested at the 9/11 Memorial he defaced Monday night. He was charged with criminal mischief, making graffiti and possession of graffiti instruments.
Tijerina painted the URL of his anti-gun website onto marble stonework surrounding the North Tower of the reflecting pool.
He boasted of his insane criminal act on his website.
“My name is Jon Tijerina and I’ve just spray-painted ‘just stop killing kids’ on the 9/11 Memorial,” Tijerina wrote on his website’s Instagram account.
Thankfully, the memorial has already been restored. Tijerina’s paint was quickly removed, which cost taxpayers around $500.
He has been released from custody. His next court appearance is January 13, 2027.
Tijerina was only six years old when terrorists struck 25 years ago. It’s questionable whether he even remembers the horror of the events of that day, but it is crystal clear he doesn’t give a damn about them.
The nature of the crimes he publicly bragged about committing speaks volumes. It’s doubtful that he knew any of the nearly 3,000 victims who were murdered that day, or any of their families, or any of the rescuers whose health was horribly impacted by the terrorist attack.
It’s also unlikely he knows any of the slain servicemembers who quickly enlisted and gave their lives in response to that horrible day, or their surviving family member who are still struggling.
It’s a given he never saw how the entire country came together in the hours after the attack, regardless of politics or party. We became Americans First as a result of the thousands of horrible deaths. That much certainly escaped this young vandal’s meager grasp.
If you look at his website, the answer to why he vandalized one of the country’s most holy places becomes very clear.
Tijerina, friends, is a nut.
Even the staunchest anti-gunners in the country have got to think the same thing if they read this fella’s writing.
He’s lost all of his marbles. He’s off his rocker. He’s as mad as a hatter. Every single one of his screws is most certainly loose.
To sum, he needs some serious help.
Tijerina’s website calls for two specific actions—just two—which he described as “demands.”
He demands universal background checks and a universal gun registry.
“Both already exist in other high-income countries. Neither requires repealing the Second Amendment. We are not asking for the impossible — we are asking for what every other wealthy democracy already has,” Tijerina wrote on the website.
Background checks, he falsely claimed, “stop prohibited buyers.”
Sure.
And a national gun registry, he wrote, is sure to work too.
“Every gun sale — including private sales, gun shows, and online transactions — must include a federal background check. This is already the law in 22 states. It should be the law everywhere,” he wrote.
If the entire country does not immediately agree with his two “demands,” Tijerina names what will happen in response: “Civil resistance.”
“Civil resistance is different. It does not ask permission. It does not wait for the next election cycle. It applies direct, sustained pressure until the cost of inaction exceeds the cost of change,” his website claims.
He then goes yet another step too far, and he actually compares his crimes to the actions of one of history’s most celebrated civil rights groups: The Freedom Riders.
That, friends, is over-the-top craziness. For Tijerina to compare his stray-painting to the actions of a real civil rights group leaves no doubt in anyone’s sane mind about the lunacy that has overridden his thoughts and actions.
“Civil resistance is not hope. It is strategy,” he wrote on his website.
In my humble opinion, the best response to Tijerina’s civil resistance strategy will be when he dons the white jacket with sleeves that tie in back, followed by a few thousand volts administered between his ears.
That would be the exact response that both his desecration and his civil-resistance deserve.
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