A new statue honoring 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, sparked national protests in March over racial justice and hymns of ‘say her name’, was in Latham Square just two weeks earlier. installed in Oakland.
Leo Carson, who sculpted the bust, said he had visited the square several times since the work was found intact on Saturday and that it was an ‘act of racist aggression’.
“Art matters, and these vandals know it,” Carson said. “Therefore, they felt compelled to attack her, and that is the same reason why anti – racist protesters demolished statues of Confederate generals.”
Paul Chambers, an Oakland police spokesman, confirmed Monday that the incident was considered vandalism.
According to Carson, it took him several months to design and construct the ceramic bust while working on it during the pandemic after losing his job at the restaurant. He recently posted a photo with the bust on Instagram.
He said he follows the news reports about Taylor and wants to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
After months of public outrage after Taylor, a 26-year-old medical emergency technician, died during a police raid on her apartment and called for the arrest of the three officers, a grand jury in September refused to take them directly to charge. death. One of the three officers was fired in June and is charged with three counts of first-class threats related to the firing of several apartments during the raid.
“Tragically, there are thousands of victims of police violence that I could choose,” Carson said. “The case of Breonna, where the only charge against the officers responsible for her murder was for the bullets that missed, and damaged the wall behind her, is such a powerful illustration of everything that is wrong in our system. who value property in life. “
As of Monday, a GoFundMe campaign to recreate the image has exceeded its $ 5,000 target. Carson said he donates the extra money to Taylor’s family.
A new bust will take a few months to complete, but Carson said he expects it will not be so easily destroyed again: he plans to use bronze this time.
