The clay lasted for several months before a Bay Area sculptor formed a shape of Breonna Taylor with his hands, which he finished with a dark brown satin glaze.
But less than two weeks after the statue commemorates me. Installed in a busy downtown downtown Oakland, California, Taylor, its creator, Leo Carson, said he holds the broken pieces of the vandalized ceramic brush in the same hands.
The statue was smashed in several places late last week, prompting widespread condemnation in the community and prompting a police investigation.
The vandalism is considered another outrage for those still struggling with the murder of me. Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman and emergency technician, by police officers in Louisville, Ky., During a drug attack in March. The death of me. Taylor, along with the assassination of George Floyd in late May, sparked widespread protests over police brutality and racial injustice.
A plate with the name of me. Taylor and the phrase ‘Say Her Name’ were displayed in front of the statue vandalized in Latham Square, near Oakland City Hall.
“I built it to support the Black Lives Matter movement,” he said. Carson said in an interview Monday night, “but that also makes it a target for racist aggression.”
A spokesman for the Oakland Police Department said in an email Monday night that a police report had been submitted and that the vandalism was being investigated.
Mr. Carson, 30, who is white, said he spent about $ 600 on the sculpture he placed in the square on Dec. 12. “Pull it down,” the person wrote, “it’s a source of unrest.”
Mr. Carson, who traveled to Home Depot and a ceramics studio during the production of the sculpture, said he was preparing for the possibility of damaging the installation.
“It was always on my mind,” he said. “I just felt like I had to do it anyway. It did not matter. ”
Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland exposed the vandalism in a Twitter post on Monday.
“This is a brutal attack on the light + justice sought in the name of Breonna Taylor,” Schaaf wrote. “We will continue to move forward; Oakland will not tolerate acts of hatred. ”
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, also condemns the damage to the sculpture.
“This vandalism action disregards Breonna’s memory, which she represents and the work of this artist,” Greenblatt said on Twitter on Monday.
Mr. Carson said the outpouring of community support was encouraging and raised about $ 8,000 on a GoFundMe page to build a new bronze statue. He said he plans to give the remaining funds to Ms. To donate Taylor’s family.
The three officers who died at the death of me. Taylor was involved, avoiding the charges of murder in September and launching a new round of protests across the country. A grand jury in Louisville has charged one officer, who was fired, on three counts of intentional threat.
Mr. Carson said someone on Instagram told him about the vandalism over the weekend.
“In that sense, it’s not surprising,” he said, “but it does not reflect Oakland.”
The sculptor said he quickly went to the sculpture to retrieve the broken pieces, which he said would be repaired and eventually used in the mold for the bronze statue.
“It gives her a sense of wholeness again,” he said.