Tulsa City Council decided to evaluate the mural after receiving another request, from the pro-police group Back The Blue Tulsa, to paint its own message on another street in support of law enforcement officers.
During the council’s meeting on Wednesday, Assistant Principal City Attorney Mark Swiney argued that such signs are not legal under city law.
“There really is nothing in our laws that turns a street into a canvas to convey a message or essentially make a sign of a street surface,” Swiney said.
He suggested that if a group wanted to paint a message or a slogan, they should do so on private property.
After listening to Swiney and other city officials, city council members determined that if they allowed one group to paint on a street surface, they would have to extend the same permit to others. And so, the “Black Lives Matter” mural would have to be removed.
“It’s not about the message or anything like that,” Councilwoman Connie Dodson said during the meeting. “I applaud it. It’s great. But at the same point, it all comes down to: yes, if you allow one, then you have to allow them all.”
“For security reasons, federal guidelines reasons and city responsibility reasons, I would suggest that (painting on the streets) not be allowed at all and that those First Amendment freedoms be expressed differently,” Dodson said.
Rhoades told Tulsa World that the team used water-based latex acrylic paint for the letters and that it was not intended to last forever. But the lyrics have not yet faded.
CNN has contacted Rhoades, but has yet to receive a response.
A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office told CNN that the city did not yet have a timeline for when the mural would be removed.
.
