Black Lives Matter mural defaced
OPD investigates after graffiti spray-painted on downtown artwork
The 400-foot-long “Black Lives Matter” street mural on Rosalind Avenue in downtown Orlando was defaced with graffiti overnight Friday, according to the Orlando Police Department.
Video from WOFL Fox 35 showed the phrases “abolish police,” “not enough” and “matter more than paint” spraypainted over the mural’s red, black and green letters, which use the colors of the Pan-African flag.
The agency is “actively investigating” the incident, according to spokesperson Lt. Diego Toruno. On Saturday morning, city workers were cleaning and repainting the mural, which was expected to be finished this weekend.
Condemnation of the vandalism from city officials was swift.
“Vandalism is not how we bring positive change to our community,” OPD Chief Orlando Rolón said Saturday morning on Twitter.
On social media, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer also decried the damage to the city’s symbol of its “commitment to end racial inequality.”
“This type of behavior has no place in our city, and this will not deter our efforts to bring about real change and action,” the mayor tweeted.
Paint for the mural just hit the ground on Friday.
Although community and faith leaders proposed the idea to the city, according to a mayoral spokeswoman, some community activists bristled at the artwork, saying it fell short of calls for substantial change.
T.J. Legacy Cole called a Friday news conference touting the mural “political theater in the park.”
The street mural stretches along Rosalind from Washington Street to Robinson Street in front of Lake Eola Park, the site of
many Black Lives Matter demonstrations in recent weeks since George Floyd, a Black man, was killed while being arrested by a white Minneapolis police officer.
That officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd cried out that he could not breathe before losing consciousness. He was later arrested.
Marches and other protests against police brutality have since taken place in cities around the nation, many of which also have created Black Lives Matter murals on their streets. The first and most prominent is in Washington D.C., where 50-feet yellow letters spelling out the movement’s name were added to the pavement in front of protest site Lafayette Square heading toward the White House.
Dozens of cities, such as Charlotte, N.C., Austin, Texas, Oakland, Calif., and St. Petersburg have also added the phrase to their streets. But other municipalities’ murals have been vandalized, as well.
In Eugene, Oregon, police said street art in front of the city courthouse was vandalized the night of