Youth Center Tagged with Violent Anti-Police Graffiti

A spokesman for Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality condemned the person repsonsible for the graffiti as “hardly angelic.” (Photo via Detroit Commission Against Police Brutality)

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Police say they’re “disheartened” by graffiti depicting an angel aiming a gun at a police officer that showed up on YouthVille Detroit’s building in Midtown Tuesday.

YouthVille Detroit, a comprehensive youth development center accommodating kids who say they need a place to feel safe, is located at 7375 Woodward Ave.

Ron Scott, a spokesman for the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, told The Detroit News it’s ironic graffiti depicting violence against police showed up on the wall of center that bills itself as a safe haven from the sometimes mean streets of Detroit.

The image shows a black male with a halo over his head and white angel wings pointing a gun at a uniformed officer, who has his hands in the air, an apparent reference to an uptick in police shootings of unarmed black males.

“Whoever did it should have the courage and first of all apologize to the owners of the building they defaced,” Scott said. “If they feel that strongly about it, they should feel strongly enough to come forward and say ‘I did it and this is why I did it.’... If he wants to criticize police, there are ways you do it.”

The image has been covered up, but police still want to know who’s responsible and are seeking surveillance footage from any cameras that may have been operating in the area at the time the building was tagged.

“Obviously it’s disheartening to all of us,” Detroit Police spokesman Adam Madera said. “It not indicative of the entire city, only the individual who decided to do that.”

Scott told the Detroit Free Press the vandalism occurred during a particularly violent week in Detroit. It’s “hardly angelic when we have five murders this week alone,” he said. “Let’s try to change our culture of violence.”