The words “White Lives Matter” were found painted on the street of a California town three days after two white people were found and charged with hate crimes for vandalizing a Black Lives Matter mural in the same area.
Police officials in the town of Martinez , which is about an hour outside of San Francisco, are investigating who wrote the block letters, in what some have described as “hate speech.”
"What I saw was hate speech written on the ground, and we're not going to tolerate it," Black Lives Matter supporter Jeff Christensen said, according to a local ABC affiliate .
Police responded to a report of the painted message on Tuesday and found another woman covering the letters with black paint.
“She painted over it because she was frustrated,” police spokesman Lt. Mike Estanol said. He added, “Neither the person who painted ‘White Lives Matter’ or her should be painting on the roadway.”
Christensen said of the woman covering up the message: "That's right, we're not going to tolerate this in our neighborhood. We're not going to take this kind of hate.”
Two white residents of Martinez were arrested and charged with hate crimes earlier this week for painting over a Black Lives Matter mural . The two people are identified as Nichole Anderson, 42, and David Nelson, 53.
The act was caught on camera, showing Anderson covering the mural while Nelson argued with bystanders.
“We’re sick of this narrative,” Nelson said. “The narrative of police brutality, the narrative of oppression, the narrative of racism. It’s a lie. It’s a lie.”
Both Anderson and Nelson are facing three separate charges, including violation of civil rights, vandalism under $400, and possession of tools to commit vandalism or graffiti. They could face up to a year in prison if convicted.
“The community spent a considerable amount of time putting the mural together only to have it painted over in a hateful and senseless manner,” Martinez Police Chief Manjit Sappal said in a statement. “The city of Martinez values tolerance, and the damage to the mural was divisive and hurtful.”
Murals supporting the Black Lives Matter movement have popped up across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody on Memorial Day.
The Laugh Factory, a comedy club, unveiled Tuesday what is believed to be the largest Black Lives Matter mural in the country. The mural is 148 feet long and depicts people such as Floyd and others who died during interactions with law enforcement officials.
"This mural is an important avenue for Black artists to present societal challenges in a public and impactful way through the lens of their experiences,'' club owner Jamie Masada said of the mural.
