A new sculpture in honor of Breonna Taylor in downtown Oakland, California, was shattered over the weekend, and police are investigating it as an act of vandalism.
The bust of Taylor, a black woman whose fatal shooting by police in Louisville, Kentucky, in March sparked national protests for racial justice and shouts of “say her name”, was installed just two weeks earlier in Oakland’s Latham Square.
Leo Carson, who sculpted the bust, said he has visited the square several times since the work was found disfigured on Saturday and that it appears to be an “act of racist aggression”.
“Art is important, and these vandals know it,” said Carson. “This is why they felt compelled to attack it, and it is the same reason that anti-racist protesters have been tearing down statues of Confederate generals.”
Oakland police spokesman Paul Chambers confirmed on Monday that the incident was considered vandalism.
Carson said it took several months to design and build the ceramic bust, working on it during the pandemic, after losing his job at the restaurant. He recently posted a photo of the bust on Instagram.
He said he was following the news about Taylor and wanted to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
After months of public protests after Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was killed in a police raid on her apartment and asked for the three police officers involved to be arrested, a grand jury in September refused to directly prosecute them. death. One of the three policemen was fired in June and was charged with three counts of first-degree dangerousness related to shooting at several apartments during the operation.
“Tragically, there are thousands of victims of police violence that I could have chosen,” said Carson. “Breonna’s case, in which the only charge against the officers responsible for her death was for the bullets that went wrong, damaging the wall behind her, is a powerful illustration of everything wrong with our system that values property over life . “
On Monday, a GoFundMe campaign to recreate the sculpture exceeded its $ 5,000 target. Carson said he is donating the additional money to the Taylor family.
A new bust will take several months to complete, but Carson said he anticipates that it will not be so easily destroyed again: he plans to use the bronze this time.
