George Floyd tribute mural vandalized outside North Carolina restaurant, police say
A mural of George Floyd was vandalized with spray paint, North Carolina police say.
The blue markings found Sunday were scrawled across the portrait an artist had created in front of a taco shop in downtown Greensboro, according to the city’s police department and a social media post.
Jenna Rice said on Facebook her painting was a tribute to Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes. That officer, Derek Chauvin, and three others were charged in connection with the incident.
“It is especially heartbreaking that on the day of George Floyd‘s funeral people without compassion, people without a moral compass would destroy artwork made of love and healing,” Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said, according to WGHP. “I am disgusted that the people who deface the artwork walked our streets.”
The mural, which depicts Floyd’s face, was painted on plywood that had been temporarily placed over the doors of Crafted: The Art of the Taco, officials say.
The restaurant was boarded up after its windows were broken during recent protests, according to the News & Record.
Floyd’s death has prompted demonstrators across the country to call for justice and changes in police tactics. Many of the protests have been peaceful, ABC News reported earlier this month.
On Sunday, Rice worked to restore the defaced mural, news outlets reported. Greensboro police as of Monday afternoon were investigating the reported vandalism, spokesperson Ronald Glenn wrote in an email to McClatchy News.
This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 4:16 PM with the headline "George Floyd tribute mural vandalized outside North Carolina restaurant, police say."
