Vandalism reported at Little Rock police memorial, building

LITTLE ROCK — Several government buildings were defaced overnight Thursday with spray-painted phrases that included “Defund the police” and “Charge killer cops,” and officials quickly decried the vandalism tied to recent protests against racism and police brutality.

Outside of the Police Department headquarters, the graffiti appeared on a memorial to officers who died in the line of duty, as well as on the ground nearby. Two police vehicles also were spray-painted, according to an incident report.

Additionally, graffiti was sprayed on the exterior of the nearby Little Rock District Court building and the South Spring Street office of Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley.

At the prosecutor’s office, graffiti read, “Fire Jegley” and “Arrest Starks,” a reference to Charles Starks, the police officer who was fired and later reinstated following his fatal shooting of 30-year-old Bradley Blackshire in February 2019. Jegley declined to charge Starks, arguing the shooting was justified.

In a statement, while acknowledging “the pain and anger many feel as a result of police brutality and misconduct across the country,” Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said the vandalism of the memorial was “not acceptable” and not the way to achieve systemic change.

Scott said the city is already leading on police reform.

“We are always looking to do more to ensure justice and accountability here in the city of Little Rock,” he said.

In another apparent act of vandalism targeting police, the North Little Rock Police Department said around 3:20 a.m. Thursday officers found a Ford Explorer patrol vehicle in flames at a substation at 4609 E. Broadway Road.

Tires on several police vehicles also had been slashed, according to a spokesman for the department. In all, four vehicles were damaged, and damage to one resulted in a total loss, Officer Joseph Green said in a news release.

During a news conference Thursday morning outside Little Rock police headquarters, as a crew of workers scrubbed the graffiti from the memorial and the pavement, Police Chief Keith Humphrey described the vandalism “a cowardly act” on the part of those who “desecrated” the memorial.

Across the front of the memorial where the names of fallen officers are listed, graffiti that read “Defund the police” was scrawled in large orange letters.

Below the memorial on the ground, someone had sprayed the name of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician whom police shot and killed in Louisville, Ky., in March.

“I’m very emotional right now, because to me, as a 32-year law enforcement professional, I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life,” Humphrey said.

In a few days, he said, residents will see that authorities have “zero tolerance for any type of desecration of any type of monument, any type of property.”

“We would take this just as serious if this was someone’s house,” Humphrey added. “People don’t have a right to vandalize anyone’s property. And you definitely don’t have the right to vandalize something that memorializes officers who gave their lives protecting the streets of this city.”

Humphrey said police are reviewing video footage from the incident — “I think there’s video at all the facilities,” he said — but the chief said he did not know whether one or more individuals were responsible.

The chief said authorities plan to pursue felony charges against the suspects based on state law.

Humphrey also suggested the people responsible could face charges under the city’s new hate-crime ordinance establishing penalties for certain bias-motivated misdemeanor offenses. City directors approved the ordinance in July. However, in spite of language in the ordinance forbidding targeting government buildings or public monuments, it’s unclear if the acts of vandalism on Thursday would qualify as a hate crime against a certain class of individuals based on specific categories listed in the ordinance such as their religion, race or sexual orientation and gender identity.

Additionally, according to the ordinance, the decision to pursue a misdemeanor hatecrime penalty lies exclusively with the city attorney, in consultation with law enforcement.

Scott said Thursday he would have to check with City Attorney Tom Carpenter to see whether the vandalism could be considered a hate crime under the ordinance.

“It was clear vandalism, and we have an investigation underway,” Scott said.

Carpenter didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday.

In a statement Thursday morning, the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police, a union representing officers in the department, said, “Last night criminals decided to deface a memorial to officers who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to the citizens of LR and to the very same freedoms that allow protesters the right to free speech.”

“This despicable act is disrespectful to their families and their memory,” the statement from the union added.

Similarly, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in a statement Thursday condemned what he called the “egregious” vandalism of the memorial to fallen officers.

“To the families of the police officers whose names are enshrined on this memorial: your loved ones gave their lives in the service of their fellow man and have forever earned the love and appreciation of Arkansans,” Cotton said. “No pathetic act of vandalism will ever change that fact. The criminals who defaced their memory — and their politically-motivated supporters — will be lost to history, but the names of our fallen officers will always be honored and remembered.”

Asked about the damage to police vehicles in North Little Rock, a spokesman for Mayor Joe Smith said the mayor was disappointed with the destruction of public property.

In a statement from spokesman Jim Billings, Smith said authorities are “aggressively looking for the perpetrators, and I’m confident that our police department will find them and arrest them soon.”

“All of our police agencies in Central Arkansas have a great relationship, and I feel very confident that Little Rock’s investigators and ours will remain in contact with each other to see if these crimes are related,” Smith said.