‘MAGA’ Vandal Defaces Palo Alto BLM Youth Art: Report

PALO ALTO, CA — Video showing a Trump supporter defacing art promoting racial justice that has surfaced on social media in recent days has generated outrage in this staunchly progressive community, and the incident is being investigated by police, KRON reports.

In the video, taken Saturday morning at University Ave., a person who appears to be an adult male carrying a skateboard, is seen spray-painting over posters in support of the Palo Alto Youth Art Protest.

This man in downtown Palo Alto defaced BLM murals, writing MAGA and defending the police that murdered George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. He mentions stuff about Chinese concentration camps, patriotism, and a divide in the country. pic.twitter.com/vvuVca807k
— 0.01%ofGerms (@gabatogofast) August 8, 2020

The art was created in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The man is heard on a rant captured on video saying “We should all unite as patriots … All this is anti-Trump.”

“It’s unfortunate to see that happening here so close to home and in such a place,” Jeremy Gabato, one of the Palo Alto Youth Art Protest contributors told KRON.

“It didn’t really match up where he’s trying to quote-unquote promote anti-racist beliefs by being racist. That’s what we were seeing.”

The man defaces the posters with tags that say “MAGA” and “They do more crime,” presumably referring to Black people.

He refers to his tags as “corrections.”

The man is heard rambling about concentration camps in China as Gabato confronts him about defacing the art.

“Are you pro death camp?” he asks the person confronting him.

When Gabato explains that the Black Lives Matter movement and Chinese human rights issues are unrelated, the man becomes adamant that such a nexus does in fact exist.

“Yes it does,” he fires back “They’re paying for our division, dude.”

Despite a worldwide reputation for progressivism, recent events suggest racism remains alive and well in Palo Alto.

A historically Black church was vandalized last year over the holidays, Palo Alto Weekly reports.

“It’s everywhere in Palo Alto,” Palo Alto resident Maya Deshpande told KRON.

“This is an epicenter of white privilege and gentrification and all of these effects right of racism. I just hope that Palo Alto changes for the better and we stop seeing this stuff."

Police made contact with the man shown in the video but it wasn't known if the man was cited or any other action was taken, according to the KRON report.

A GoFundMe drive has been established to help cover the cost of reprinting the damaged art.

Read more at KRON