2 White Flags Hoisted Atop Brooklyn Bridge

The NYPD can say for sure that New York City is not surrendering, but no one’s sure yet how or why two white flags replaced American flags on top of the Brooklyn Bridge this morning, reports the Wall Street Journal. After social media started pulsing with pictures of the mysterious banners, the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit headed over with counterterrorism and crime-scene experts to figure out what was going on. Officers scaled the bridge and the white flags were taken down around 11am.

Twitter has been inundated with plenty of the aforementioned surrender references and even a tweeted "confession" by a parody group called the Bicycle Lobby, which said it was surrendering the bridge's bike path to pedestrians, reports the Daily News. But the real culprits are at large. "If flying a white flag atop the Brooklyn Bridge is someone’s idea of a joke, I’m not laughing," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, according to CBS New York. "Political and social expression, whatever its message may be, has a place in our society, but not at the expense of others’ security." Investigators are said to be checking surveillance tapes. (More white flags stories.)