Greek Consulate Vandalism: Work of Consulate & Times Square Bomber?

Surveillance video still at left (bicyclist can be seen in the upper right quadrant); photograph of the Greek Consulate from the AP

Early yesterday morning, a person riding a bicycle was caught on surveillance video throwing a brick at a window of the Greek Consulate—and spray painting on the East 79th Street building. And police are investigating whether this incident is linked to the bombings outside the British and Mexican consulates, as well as outside the Times Square recruiting booth.

Newsday reports the vandal "spray-painted in black 'Alex was here' and 'Murderer' and the anarchist symbol, a capital 'A' within a circle." "Alex" appears to be a reference to the death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigorpoulos, a Greek youth who was killed by police and whose death has set off riots. No one was inside the Consulate at the time.

The NY Times reports, "Though no bomb was used, investigators said the attack bore striking similarities to attacks on the British Consulate at 845 Third Avenue in 2005, the Mexican Consulate at 27 East 39th Street last year and at the Times Square military recruiting station in March. Each occurred about the same time of day, inflicted little damage and caused no injuries. A bicyclist with a hooded jacket or sweatshirt was spotted at the scene of the attacks, and each appeared to have political motivations."

After the Times Square bombing, the police found the bike apparently used by the bomber. It was dumped a few blocks away.

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By Jen Chung in News on December 11, 2008 10:45 AM

Comments [rss]

catsinvasion

ride on, bicycle bomber!

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

@11, the greek police are in the open and in the midst of the riots. NYPD would be in hiding in their cars and trucks. They wold only barricade us and people would be injured and killed. Note that there is not one death in Greek Riots. NYPD only protects property not people

Wza

lol @ the comments

Politburo

Just so it's clear.. I'm not saying that it's not the same person, but the reasoning given for why it is the same person is not very strong.. the two commenters who believe this didn't give any reasoning at all.

bagelman

agree with rolltide: this is the same person (or someone in the anarchist milieu).

i also find it amazing that the greek police can't do a little more clampdown on these riots; forget the greek army - they should call in the NYPD!

hungryghoast

i think Rolltide23 is more than a little confused...

HolyDiver

Hahaha - these are the people in charge of protecting us? I agree with Nick S - these guys are reaching just a bit. "Well I know its not a bomb this time, its a brick, and I know the perp spray-painted murderers and Alex on the wall, and I know that Greece has had a week of riots due to police shooting and killing a kid named Alex...but THE GUY IS ON A BIKE - do you not see the similarities, man?!?!"

Embarrassing

r1b2

good one, thefacts.

Couldn't this be drumming up hype for Lance Armstrong's return to Le Tour?

Internet Handle

I'm sure there are many things occurring around that time of day which involve causing limited damage and few to no injuries.

drewo

Each case appears to involve a human being.

Nick S

I think this is what we call "reaching."

Politburo

I hope NYPD doesn't seriously consider those as "striking similarities". If you're going to vandalize or bomb a place, those "similarities" are very likely to appear in any case. And "each appeared to have political motivations" ignores the glaring fact that all four attacks had completely different political motivations (and that assumes that the attacks had any political motivation to begin with.. a safe assumption, but not necessarily true).