Two people were caught on camera painting over a āBlack Lives Matterā mural in Martinez, California.
Over the weekend footage of the incident began circulating on social media. The video captured a white woman wearing a red shirt as she poured black paint over the letters.
She was accompanied by a white man wearing a red āMake America Great Againā hat and a red shirt in support of President Donald Trumpās re-election campaign.
When confronted about their actions, the unidentified man told the group of onlookers, āNo one wants Black Lives Matter here.ā
He also dismissed the ānarrativeā of police brutality and racism in America, deeming it āa lie.ā
āWeāre sick of this narrative,ā he said. āThe narrative of police brutality, the narrative of oppression, the narrative of racism. Itās a lie. Itās a lie.ā
See the footage below:
Amid protests and heightened calls for police reform and racial equality, āBlack Lives Matterā murals have been painted in cities, nationwide.
The Martinez Police Department is conducting an investigation into the defacing of the cityās mural.
On Sunday, Martinez Police Chief Manjit Sappal released a statement about the incident and criticized the people who defaced the mural āin a hateful and senseless manner.ā
āThe community spent a considerable amount of time putting the mural together only to have it painted over in a hateful and senseless manner,ā Martinez Police Chief Manjit Sappal said in a statement, adding, āThe city of Martinez values tolerance, and the damage to the mural was divisive and hurtful.ā
Despite the manās claim about the ānarrativeā of racism being a ālie,ā statistics on police brutality and racismāincluding systemic racismāhave been widely proven otherwise.
