Black Lives Matter painting defaced. The Fresno muralist has a message for the vandal
A Black Lives Matter mural in a neighborhood in northwest Fresno has ended up vandalized.
Muralist Le’Voghn “Levi” Hills said he discovered his painting, which is about 7 feet tall and 30 feet wide, defaced prior to his drive to work Monday morning.
The vandal(s) had blackened out the word “Black” on the wall and marked up the other words of the sign, too.
The sign, located near West and Shaw avenues, had been up since July 11 as a way to bring awareness regarding racial equality and police brutality.
“Initially, when I saw what had happened, I felt pretty disheartened and crushed,” Hills said. “We worked very hard on it. It hurt a little bit. We had received a lot of compliments about it.
“But I didn’t feel anger. I mostly felt really bad for whoever did this.”
The mural took about 6 hours for Hills and friends to paint.
Shortly after Hills saw that the mural was defaced, he painted a message direct at those responsible: “We forgive you. Your hate won’t stop our persistence.”
“It’s just disheartened me because this is not a politic statement,” said Yasmin Mendoza, who has family that lives in the neighborhood and noticed Monday that their BLM sign had been altered.
“It’s a human rights statements — basic humanity, basic decency,” Mendoza added. “When you deface a call for human rights, that means you have a lack of basic humanity.”
A message left with the Fresno Police Department regarding the incident was not immediately returned.
Mendoza said a fundraiser was being set up to help cover the costs to repaint the mural again.
“We’re hoping to just be able to redo it, Hills said. “But I’m pretty sure this won’t be the last time (it gets vandalized).
“In some ways, this mural is more than just a painting. It symbolizes our continued efforts to raise more awareness on the topic. We’re not going to stop. Painting back the sign. And letting other people know that Black lives do matter.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 7:05 AM.