A Fourth of July display meant to celebrate the nation's founding instead became the target of vandals in Putnam County, where a copy of the Declaration of Independence was defaced. Authorities are now investigating the act as possible criminal mischief, and the episode has stirred debate among residents in the community.
According to officials, a copy of the Declaration of Independence had been placed outside the historic courthouse on the Fourth of July, set up so that residents could add their own signatures in a nod to the document's original signers and the holiday it commemorates.
At some point, police say, someone defaced the display. Investigators are working to determine who wrote political messages on top of the historic document's text, marking directly over the words of the Declaration in what officials described as graffiti.
The defacement was not the only incident. According to authorities, a solvent had been thrown on the display earlier, and officials said it was undetermined whether the two incidents were connected or the work of different people.
The vandalism divided opinion in the town. Some residents questioned whether writing on the display fell within their First Amendment rights, while others argued it never should have been written on at all, suggesting that people use their voices to make a point rather than deface the document.
Police are treating the matter as possible criminal mischief and have asked anyone with information about either incident to contact the Putnam County Sheriff's Department in Carmel, as investigators work to identify who was responsible for the damage.