During the ongoing pro-terrorist / anti-Israel protests in New York City, Fraunces Tavern, historic landmark and hallowed ground at the southern tip of Manhattan, was desecrated; vandalized with the word "BIGOTS" painted in black across the front of the building while red paint (presumably symbolic of blood) was splashed on several parts of the front and side of the facade. This attack is strikingly similar to a defacement at Manhattan’s World War I memorial around the same time. Vandalizing Fraunces would be akin to vandalism on Independence Hall and to the nearby 9/11 Memorial.
Fraunces Tavern is one of the oldest buildings in New York City, established in 1762 by Samuel Fraunces (born in the West Indies, personal friend of General Washington and by many accounts a man of color). Fraunces is considered by many as the birthplace of American Liberty. It is where Alexander Hamilton and the Sons of Liberty met, was used by Congress from 1785 to 1788 and, most famously was the site where, "on December 4, 1783, George Washington gathered a group of his officers, nine days after the last of the British troops left American soil, to thank them for their service and bid them an emotional farewell before returning home."
Today, a banner reading "Site of Washington's farewell to his officers" adorns the building celebrating Fraunces' glorious role in American Liberty.
This is not the first time Fraunces was targeted for its contribution to America. On January 24, 1975, our father, 33 year old Frank Connor, was murdered with three other innocent men as he ate lunch at Fraunces. The Marxist, Cuban inspired terrorists of the Puerto Rican Armed Forces for National Liberation (“FALN”) attacked that day with a vicious, powerful and deadly lunchtime bomb designed to kill, as was written in their communique, “reactionary corporate executives.” Our family was to celebrate my brother’s recent 11th and my 9th birthdays that very evening. Instead, the FALN appointed themselves as our father’s judge, jury and executioner.
Between 1974 and 1983, the aforementioned FALN claimed responsibility for over 130 bombings in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Though never prosecuted specifically for the Fraunces bombing, the unrepentant terrorists served only 18 years of prison sentences ranging from 55 to 70 years. As Hillary Clinton geared up for her 2000 New York Senate run and was looking to connect with New York’s Hispanic community, in August 1999 Bill Clinton granted clemency to the FALN, a blatant political gesture orchestrated by then deputy attorney general Eric Holder.
One terrorist, FALN leader Oscar Lopez Rivera, was so dedicated to his cause and his comrades that he refused the 1999 Clinton clemency. However in 2017, he accepted an unprecedented and astonishing second clemency from Obama/Biden. Granting a second clemency to this unrepentant terrorist was one of the Obama/Biden administration’s last acts in office.
Another FALN member William Morales, chief FALN bomb-maker, likely built the deadly devices used to murder my father at Fraunces. On July 12, 1978, which would have been my dad’s 37th birthday, Morales blew off part of his face and nine of his fingers when a bomb he was crafting exploded in his Queens, NY bomb factory. The apartment contained explosives, incendiary mixtures, tools, FALN communiqués, and even the copy machine used to make those communiqués, including the January 24, 1975, communiqué found after the Fraunces bombing.
Morales was captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced in 1979 to up to 99 years in prison but was broken out of Bellevue hospital prison by The Family.
Morales was located by the FBI in Puebla, Mexico, in 1983. When the Mexican police closed in, he and an accomplice killed a Mexican police officer. Morales was arrested, charged with being an accessory to murder, and imprisoned in Mexico.
In 1988, ignoring President Reagan’s extradition demands, the sympathetic Mexican government allowed Morales to travel to Cuba, where he remains a guest of the Castro regime along with scores of murderous and felonious fugitives such as Victor Gerena and Black Liberation Army cop killer Joanne Chesimard (Assata Shakur).
The Morales/Chesimard connections remained on U.S. college campuses well into the 21st century. City College of New York (CCNY) incredibly maintained the Morales/Shakur Center honoring these two Marxist terrorists until it was finally shut down in 2013. My father went to CCNY. CCNY honored a leader of a terrorist group who murdered one of their students! Photos I took of a clinched fist painted on the door of the center are uncannily familiar to the BLM logo itself.
Morales and Chesimard remain guests of the Cuban regime as I work with Congress and law enforcement for their return to face justice.
Fraunces has become hallowed ground to our family, friends and law enforcement members, much like the World Trade Center site where my dad's godson, my cousin Steve Schlag was murdered also by anti-America terrorists a few blocks and a generation away on 9/11. A group of us meets at Fraunces annually to raise a glass to the victims of January 24, of 9/11 and for all the American Patriots who lived and died for our liberty.
Today, the next generation of young Marxists appears to have targeted this historic and hallowed ground for the same reasons as the FALN, to assault American liberty, our God given rights and desecrate our founders as bigots. The founders gave their lives for the liberty that these vandals enjoy, abuse and mock. To our family, they also willingly desecrated a grave site; the place where Frank Connor and three others died. It is truly a disgusting display that needs to be shown and punished.
After hearing about the vandalism a couple of weeks ago, I went to Fraunces and took the photos below. A worker at the site told me the word(s) covered up by the tape and plastic referred to "BIGOTS" which was subsequently confirmed by an NYPD source. I understand the NYPD viewed this as plain vandalism without understanding its historical significance but are now looking at it in the context of its history and the pro-terror rallies in the city. We pray justice is served.
Referring to our founders as BIGOTS and inferring blood onto them shows their ignorance and their hatred for this country. The fact that the mainstream media, despite my several contacts, has not found this worthy of reporting is also disturbing.
This desecration is a disgrace; an indignity to all Americans, the FALN victims including our father and to the very Father of our country.
Private citizens need to stand up for America ourselves as our history is being attacked. We cannot let this stand. Like the founders themselves, if we don't do it, who will?
