The New York Police Department has arrested eight people in the past month for defacing the Black Lives Matter street art outside Trump Tower in Manhattan.
The street painting has attracted a wide variety of protesters who have attempted to cover up the artwork since Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio was photographed painting it with the Rev. Al Sharpton and volunteers in early July.
This weekend, 37-year-old Mark-David Hutt of Rochester was filmed spreading blue and red paint over the letters before officers arrested him. In a video posted to Facebook, Hutt accused de Blasio and other city lawmakers of creating a racist and divisive atmosphere within the city by painting the sign while simultaneously calling for major reforms to the city’s police budget.
“Mayor Bill De Blasio has ruined NYC & has put a target on the back of NYPD’s finest,” Hutt said. “We need to STAND UP and take our country back. #BlueLivesMatter.”
President Trump has made similar comments on social media and called the street painting in front of his property a “hate symbol” after it was finished.
“NYC is cutting Police $’s by ONE BILLION DOLLARS, and yet the @NYCMayor is going to paint a big, expensive yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury avenue,” he wrote on Twitter.
Last Monday, de Blasio said the street painting was a sign of “progress” and that anyone attempting to paint over the design would be placed in handcuffs.
“Just let it be, and let it be a sign of progress,” de Blasio said. “But if someone tries to deface it, that’s an offense. They’ll be arrested, and we will repaint it again.”
