The giant Black Lives Matter mural that was painted in front of Trump Tower in Manhattan last Thursday was vandalized on Monday. Someone poured red paint over part of it, as captured on Citizen, and then retweeted by Andrea Catsimatidis, the chair of the Manhattan Republican Party (and daughter of former mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis) below.
Police confirmed the incident happened just before 12:30 p.m. on Monday on Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th streets. The suspect, who police say was wearing a black shirt and a black hat, dumped the paint on the "Black" and "Lives" parts, then fled the scene down 56th Street. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
“I wish I’d tackled him, but I’m old and fat so I didn’t,” Paul Rossen, who was selling anti-Trump merchandise nearby when the incident happened, told the NY Post. “I don’t like anybody blocking free speech, and even though I hate Trump I would never think of vandalizing something pro-Trump."
This is one of several official and unofficial Black Lives Matter murals painted around the city in each borough. After de Blasio first announced these plans a few weeks ago, Donald Trump expressed his anger over the idea, decrying it in a series of tweets as a "symbol of hate" that would be "denigrating this luxury Avenue."
The mural has already become the site of confrontations between Trump protesters and supporters, with over a dozen Trump supporters, allegedly including members of the hate group the Proud Boys, carrying signs that read "Trump 2020" and wearing t-shirts emblazoned with "All Lives Matter" this weekend. A few small tussles were captured on video.
In Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, pro-cop demonstrators and NYPD officers brawled with counter-protesters over the weekend as well.
There have been multiple Black Lives Matter murals around the country which have been defaced in recent weeks, including one near Chicago which was changed to read "All Lives Matter." In California, two people have been charged with hate crimes for allegedly painting over a BLM mural. "We must address the root and byproduct of systemic racism in our country. The Black Lives Matter movement is an important civil rights cause that deserves all of our attention," District Attorney Diana Becton said in a statement.
