A mural of George Floyd, the Minnesota man who was killed by former police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020, has been defaced with a racist term in Houston, Texas. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said officers were investigating the incident, which took place on Thursday, April 22, KTRK-TV reports. Thankfully, the artist was able to restore the mural to its original state.
- Finner claimed “some knucklehead” had graffitied the mural overnight. That’s a rather playful term for someone capable of writing such hateful, racist terminology, but hey, I guess that’s Texas for you. He did admit to CNN that hate could be the only motivation for the crime, especially since it took place only a couple of days after Chauvin was found guilty of Floyd’s murder.
- Chauvin’s guilty verdict has been causing some “unrest” in Houston. While Finner has urged all Houston residents to remain peaceful, he acknowledged that not everyone would abide by the rules of civil society. “But one thing I want to say about Houston, Texas. We stick together. My friends, some of the people and things that I’ve been talking about over the last couple of weeks, us sticking together, and when you see something, you say something. We got the call and Houston Police Department are here,” he said. “I want everybody to understand, ignore people with bad hearts and bad motivation, do not give them the power.” I suppose it would be much easier to simply “ignore” those with bad hearts if they weren’t going around killing people of color.
- Thankfully, the original artist has been able to restore the mural. By the same afternoon, artist Daniel Anguilu had removed the hateful language and restored the mural to its beautiful original state. “As a human, it’s just wrong to do something like that,” he told reporters. “My intention with this mural and with a group of friends when we painted it was of support, first, but also to help our communities heal from some of the issues that we’re facing. So, it’s a reminder that we just have to keep working.”
Went exploring in Houston last week to find the George Floyd murals. I am currently working on a story and was lucky enough to interview Daniel Anguilu, the artist of this George Floyd mural at the Houston Graffiti Building.#Houstonart #georgefloyd #artmurals pic.twitter.com/qDB2fosyoL
— amanda (@amandalattimerr) June 30, 2020
