Kensington Resident's Memorial to Fallen Comrades Demolished

While Gabriel Tolliver, a Kensington resident and veteran of the ongoing war in Afghanistan, didn't expect his makeshift memorial to his fallen comrades to stand the full test of time—he did think it would last until the end of the day, at least.

So it was with shock that Tolliver returned only a few hours later on Memorial Day to find dozens of carefully arranged miniature soldiers, a U.S. flag and a plaque scattered by an unseen hand—or paw—at the base of Fort Greene Park's .

"If it were someone's dog, I wish the owners would [have] been considerate of the memorial and placing the flag and plaque back up," said Tolliver, who served in Afghanistan from 2009-10.

His memorial included a framed plaque that listed the number of U.S. servicemembers killed in the decade-long Afghan conflict (1,966), the number of civilians killed (25,586-plus) and the estimate cost ($532 billion and counting) since the war began in 2001.

In front of the sign, Tolliver set up lines of toy soldiers surrounding a pile of presumably dead servicemembers at the center.

"I have no control over how one will respond to the work but it seems like it might of resonated with somebody," Tolliver wrote. "So if it did... it was successful regardless."

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