A statue of George Floyd erected in Brooklyn, United States has been defaced just less than a week after its unveiling.
The 700-pounds bronze statue of George Floyd was unveiled in Brooklyn, a predominantly African American city in Newark on June 19, in commemoration of Juneteenth celebration.
Juneteenth, is recognized as the day commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. This year, and for the first time in history, Juneteenth was recognized as an official federal holiday across the United States.
The statue, which depicts Floyd sitting on a bench, was commissioned by actor and filmmaker, Leon Pinkeye and sculpted by artist Stanley Watts as a donation to the city.
The defacing of the statue, which was unveiled on Flatbush Avenue last Saturday to commemorate the Juneteenth holiday, was discovered by officers early Thursday, the police said.
It was covered with black spray paint and marked with a stencil for Patriot Front, a white supremacist group with a small but growing presence in New York City.
The website and logo of the white suprematist group was also found on the statue, according to DailyMail.
Four suspects connected to the vandalism were caught on camera and the police is working to identify them.
The surveillance footage showed four unidentified individuals who approached the statue at around 3.40am, before they walked away a short time later.
According to the police, the vandalism is being treated as a hate crime. This act was carried out day before the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in Floyd’s death, Derek Chauvin, is set to face sentencing.
“It’s at the epitome of not only anti-Blackness and racism, but it is also about the lack of even basic human decency about the life of George Floyd,” said Imani Henry, a lead organizer with Equality for Flatbush, a local community group that opposes gentrification in the area and fights against police brutality.
Henry stated;
For someone to desecrate an innocent person’s tribute is just beyond the pale.
“I’m saddened by it. I’m not completely shocked”, said Chris Carnabuci, the artist who created the sculpture as part of a project commemorating Floyd’s death and the attention it drew to persistent racism in the criminal justice system.
Carnabuci said he knew the sculpture would elicit strong feelings but had not expected it to be defaced so swiftly.
He expressed;
It was so quickly afterward that it happened. Maybe that was a surprise.
Carnabuci revealed on Thursday that there were people working to remove the spray paint and fix any other damage to the statue, which is to remain in Brooklyn for several weeks before a planned move to Union Square in Manhattan.
He said;
It does go to show you that the division is out there. The polarization exists.
No arrests had been made as of Thursday afternoon, the police said.
Patriot Front has its roots in a national neo-Nazi organization. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremism in the United States, has designated it as a hate group.
At least twice, the law enforcement official said, those with ties to Patriot Front are believed to have unveiled large banners bearing the group’s slogans and other information across major avenues in New York City.
Earlier this month, a mural of Floyd in Philadelphia was defaced in a similar fashion, and tagged with the Patriot Front logo.
In New York, the group has come under the scrutiny of the Police Department’s Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism unit, a special task force that tracks the presence of hate groups in the city, the law enforcement official said.
Floyd, whose death sparked a global outcry against police brutality and racial injustice had his one year death anniversary celebrated last month with the US president inviting his family to the White House.
Minnesota Police officer, Derek Chauvin, who has been charged and found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter was caught on camera while kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes while the latter pled for breath.
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