The community-owned Coffee Art and Performance Cafe embodies that freedom, but now Lady Liberty has been disembodied and disfigured by someone with a chainsaw.
"This is truly a crime," owner Debi Ryan said.
The 200-pound replica of the Statue of Liberty disappeared last month.
The manager of the vox pop shop got an e-mail on the Fourth of July with a link to a video.
Posted on YouTube and modeled after a disturbing hostage video, the NYPD is investigating the sent from address.
The message included the words "death to America."
"Liberty is the holy masquerade of the decapitated, so we decapitated it in the struggle for a truly free unity," the message read.
Developers and writers of a new website called "Brokelyn" theorized about possible motives, calling it disturbing and bizarre.
Regulars say justice would be getting liberty back and repairing for all to enjoy at a place where everyone gets to express themselves however they want.
The coffee shop is known for left-wing political debate, poetry readings and open-mic events.
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