A California city approved of a resident creating a Black Lives Matter street mural that was painted for Independence Day, but after another resident requested approval to paint a “MAGA 2020” mural nearby, the city decided to power-wash away the BLM mural.
As RedState reported, city leaders in Redwood City approved of Dan Pease painting a “Black Lives Matter” mural on Broadway Street, even giving him the yellow paint to daub the street, according to the Sacramento Bee.
But then real estate attorney Maria Rutenberg made her request: a “MAGA 2020 mural” near the BLM mural.
“I saw [the] ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign appearing on Broadway Street on the asphalt. I figured that’s gonna be a new public space, open for discussion, and I wanted to get my message out, too,” Rutenberg said.
She told KRON4: “Governments cannot and should not get to pick and choose who should be allowed to speak. Now that cities open up asphalts as public forums, everyone with any political message is free to write their own. I, for one, would like to paint MAGA 2020. At a time like this, it’s especially important that we allow free and open political discussion for all sides, not just BLM.”
After deciding to wash away the BLM mural, the city gave their ostensible reason for doing so, saying it was a traffic hazard that might cause accidents, as CBS San Francisco reported.
City spokeswoman Jennifer Yamaguma told The Washington Post,“Staff is concerned about public safety issues that may arise from painting murals on its public streets, which could result in driver confusion and traffic accidents. Thus, the existing mural has been removed from Broadway and no further art installation will be authorized on the City’s streets.”
Pease said, “Because we were using the poster board paint that would eventually deteriorate over time, my understanding from them was that the mural would last as long as the paint lasted.”
He told The Washington Post, “I’m not upset the piece is being taken down because it’s just words on the street. It doesn’t represent real change. What is upsetting and frustrating is someone who disagrees with the thought of Black Lives Matter has the audacity to come out with … a comparable counter punch to Black Lives Matter. That to me is disgusting.”
A petition on Change.org stated that the removal of the BLM mural represented a victory for “white supremacy,” writing, “A local artist recently painted BLACK LIVES MATTER on Broadway … in Redwood City, CA, similar to the large mural in Washington, D.C. Based on a single complaint by a white woman, the City Council unilaterally decided to remove the mural and did so despite receiving numerous requests from the community to keep it. Such negation of the community’s voice is itself an example of white supremacy — privileging one white voice over the community’s.”