Mayor Bill de Blasio’s gigantic Black Lives Matter mural outside the Trump Tower is already being abandoned.
An unidentified man walked to the giant mural outside the Midtown skyscraper and poured red paint over the bright yellow letters shortly after noon Monday, then ran off before police showed up to inspect the damage.
“I knew it was going to happen, all these racist things are happening,” construction worker Billy McCabe told the Post. “The mural shouldn’t have been done right in front of the Trump Tower.”
The mural, announced by De Blasio earlier this month, has already become a hot spot for clashes between pro and anti-Trump forces, including an ugly exchange of ideas on Saturday.
De Blasio commissioned the mural last month, and on Thursday he was booed by protesters while helping to paint the mural with First Lady Chirlane McCray and Reverend Al Sharpton.
Police said the assailant who trashed the mass message on Monday walked down Fifth Avenue at 12:13 pm in a black shirt and black hat, threw away the paint, and then ran down 56th Street, police said.
The smear of paint, lying between “Black” and “Lives”, spread over much of the mural as traffic passed.
“I wish I had tackled it, but I’m old and fat, so I didn’t,” said Paul Rossen, who was wearing a “Dump Trump” face mask and BLM t-shirt and sold anti-Trump products nearby. when the vandal appeared.
“I don’t like anyone blocking freedom of expression, and while I hate Trump, I would never think of destroying something in favor of Trump,” he said.
Nearby, a man in a MAGA hat was pacing back and forth with a sign saying: “The only time black lives matter is when a white cop or Oreo cookie shoots them. Defend all the police.
“It shouldn’t have, but that shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” said the man, who identified himself as Michael, about the vandalized and disfigured mural.
Additional reports from Craig McCarthy
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