George Floyd statue is vandalized for 2nd time
Hate-filled vandals defaced a statue of George Floyd in Union Square Park early Sunday, splattering paint over the 6-foot bust.
It was the second time that the memorial has been vandalized. On June 24, four men with bandannas spray-painted a white supremacist message on the statue when it was displayed at Flatbush Junction in Brooklyn.
After the prior incident, the piece was taken to a studio to be cleaned and then later placed in Union Square Park.
The Union Square display, which was unveiled last week, also includes statues of the late Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis and Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker fatally shot by police on March 13, 2020, in Louisville, Ky.
Cops are investigating the Sunday incident.
Andrew Cohen and Lindsay Eshelman, co-founders of Confront Art, and LaCrown Johnson of We Are Floyd issued a statement on the incident.
“It takes a lot of courage to display the three statues we are exhibiting in Union Square. It also takes a good deal of courage to vandalize a statue on a global stage in broad daylight,” they said.
“This continues to bring light to our mission that art is a conversation catalyst, a place for public discourse, and through these acts we can hopefully overcome hate and find unity for the future. We continue to be inspired to create and display public art to further this important mission!”
In the Brooklyn incident, police released video of the suspects. Floyd’s face was covered in black paint and the web address for “Patriotic Front,” a white supremacist group, was stenciled on the statue.
The statue is made of a special plywood often used in boat-building called okoume marine grade. The bust is covered in bronze metallic exterior paint. It is meant to represent a global understanding of injustice and how it can lead to action and then change.