George Floyd Mural Repaired After Vandalization

Vandalized mural on Anacapa Street (Photo: John Palminteri)

By edhat staff

A mural honoring George Floyd was vandalized overnight in downtown Santa Barbara and promptly repaired by the artist.

The mural was painted earlier this month on the side of EOS Lounge to not only honor Floyd but show support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

The piece was designed by Griffin Lounsbury, a multi-media artist in Santa Barbara, and painted by local tattoo artist Chad Green. It’s located in the 500 block of Anacapa Street and depicts a profile of Floyd with the words “Please, I Can’t Breathe.”

Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old Black man, was murdered by four police officers last month. While Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on a city street during an arrest, a white police officer kept his knee on the right side of Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Floyd was unresponsive for the last 2 minutes and 53 seconds.

Several bystanders recorded the event on their phones with one video showing Floyd repeating “Please” and “I can’t breathe.” The murder sparked outrage in Minneapolis that rapidly spread throughout the United States and eventually overseas with marches, protests, and rallies that continue today.

The vandals spraypainted “ALL LIVES MATTER” over the text in yellow spray paint and a report was filed with the city’s vandalism department. Artist Chad Green was able to quickly restore the mural and remove the vandalism before Thursday afternoon.

The phrase “All Lives Matter” and “Blue Lives Matter,” the latter referring to police officers, have been used by some in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Both counter-slogans have been heavily criticized for being distracting, dismissive, ignorant, and racist.

Black Lives Matter movement co-founder Alicia Garza stated, “#BlackLivesMatter doesn’t mean your life isn’t important – it means that Black lives, which are seen without value within White supremacy, are important to your liberation.”

Leaders within the black community have stated that by altering Black Lives Matter for “all” or any other designation, discounts and diminishes the focus on the violence and discrimination that Black individuals face every day in this country.

“The universalizing politics of ‘All lives matter’ is one of racial dismissal, ignoring, and denial. The insistence that Black lives matter accordingly is necessary only because, unlike ‘all lives, in this society, black lives are too often taken not to matter. Black lives are presumed too readily in the U.S. not to inhabit the universal,” wrote professor David Theo Goldberg.