According to Click On Detroit, Patriot Front, a racist, anti-Semitic group was seen on Sunday, Sept. 19, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, destroying Black Lives Matter murals.
The perpetrators vandalized one of the two 260-foot murals painted by members of the community earlier this year. White paint now covers the Black Lives Matter signs, which were unveiled to the public on Juneteenth after dozens of volunteers worked together to complete the project.
“The damage speaks for itself on the amount of hatred they had to produce something like that,” Trisché Duckworth, a community organizer, and activist, said.
She also noted that she was not surprised at all by the heinous act by Patriot Front.
“Before we even did this we knew it was a possibility,” she said. “What shocked me is they didn’t do it sooner, to be honest. This is the America that we live in right now.”
With a plan already in place to restore the mural, the goal is to reconstruct what was wrecked and keep positivity in place. “This group may have paint, but we have more paint,” Duckworth said. “This group doesn’t have what we have — we have love, community, and togetherness, and that’s what’s going to get us through.”
It is an alarming time where racists are living amongst the community. “I’m very alarmed at what could happen. They were very intentional to only blot out ‘Black Lives’ and not ‘Matter,’” she continued.
Good people are coming out to aid and help, offering to install security cameras to deter any future acts of vandalism.
