Man arrested on suspicion of defacing S.F.'s iconic Pink Triangle installation
San Francisco police said that officers arrested a 19-year-old on suspicion of defacing the Pink Triangle memorial art installation on Twin Peaks on Tuesday.
Officers said they responded to the unit block of Christmas Tree Point just before 12:30 p.m., where they observed a man 'actively defacing' the installation. After the suspect ran, police pursued him on foot and detained him, officials said.
Officers arrested Lester Bamacajeronimo of San Francisco in the incident. Officials said they seized evidence of vandalism tools.
Charges against the suspect are pending, officials said.
'This vandalism is unacceptable in our city and the San Francisco Police department condemns this act,' spokespersons said. 'San Francisco's Pink Triangle is a powerful tool of our city's commitment to supporting LGBT rights and commemorates to (sic) victims of the past.'
The installation of the city's famous Pink Triangle is one of the many events that mark the beginning of San Francisco's Pride month. Hundreds of volunteers show up each year to help setup the triangle, which makes up nearly an acre in size and this year, was made up of 175 pink tarps.
The San Francisco tradition, which began as a renegade crafts project, was established in 1995, according to a historical website for the Pink Triangle. The symbol of the pink triangle is a reclaiming of the pink triangle patch that gay men were forced to wear in Nazi Germany's concentration camps alongside Jews, Roma, political dissidents and other 'undesirables.'
Even after the Allies defeated the Nazis and freed many concentration camp survivors, those marked with pink triangles were imprisoned under a law barring homosexuality. Germany did not recognize gay men as victims of the Nazi regime and worthy of compensation until 2002, the Pink Triangle founder, Patrick Carney, told the Chronicle earlier this year.
San Francisco Chronicle reporter St. John Barned-Smith contributed to this report.
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