‘This hate and desecration has no place in our city’: Mayor responds after Martin Luther King Jr statue is vandalized with swastika and SS bolts in Long Beach
- Police responded to call on Friday and are investigating graffiti as a hate crime
- A photo on social media showed the statue of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. spray painted with a black swastika and two SS bolts
- Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia slammed the ‘horrific’ and ‘awful’ graffiti
- On Sunday, a local group organised a rally against hate in front of the statue
- In 2019, a plaque from base of the statue was stolen, it was replaced this year
A statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was vandalized with SS bolts and a swastika in Long Beach over the weekend.
It is the second time in two years the statue, erected in 1986, has been targeted, after a plaque was stolen in 2019.
A photo posted to Twitter showed the statue of the civil rights icon spray painted with a black swastika and two SS bolts.
Following the vandalism, which is being investigated as a hate crime, a group of local residents staged a rally against hate in front of the statue.
Police told KTLA5 that they responded to a call about ‘hate or bias motivated vandalism’ related to the statue at 1950 Lemon Avenue around 3:20 p.m. on Friday.
They had no information on the crime or suspects as of Monday afternoon, the outlet reported.
A statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was vandalized with SS bolts and a swastika in Long Beach over the weekend
Robert Garcia, Mayor of Long Beach, called the vandalism ‘horrific’ in a tweet on Monday.
‘Over the holiday weekend our MLK statue at King Park was vandalized with horrific graffiti. The LBPD are investigating this as a hate crime and we are working to catch whoever committed this awful act.
‘Our MLK statue is a symbol of hope and justice for the community. This hate and desecration has no place in our city.’
The Twitter user who shared the picture of the defaced statue claimed: ‘This city has a major hidden white supremacists issue and it needs to be addressed ASAP’.
The statue was cleaned on Friday and no mark of the graffiti remained when a small group of locals gathered for a rally against hate.
The AOC7 Neighborhood Group hosted the demonstration, at which pastors, locals and Assistant Police Chief Wally Hebeish and Commander Ty Burford spoke in front of the statue.
One of the organizers, Mary Simmons, told the Long Beach Post that the group felt something had to be done in response to the vandalism.
Following the vandalism, which is being investigated as a hate crime, a group of local residents staged a rally against hate in front of the statue
The AOC7 Neighborhood Group hosted the demonstration, at which pastors, locals and Assistant Police Chief Wally Hebeish and Commander Ty Burford spoke in front of the statue
Photos of the small crowd showed demonstrators holding signs reading: ‘No-room for hate in Long Beach’ and ‘White silence is violence’
‘Our hearts were broken when we saw the posts on social media,’ Simmons said.
‘We can stand by and do nothing, or we can stand up against it.’
Photos of the small crowd showed demonstrators holding signs reading: ‘No-room for hate in Long Beach’ and ‘White silence is violence’.
In February, a plaque at the base of the statue that had been stolen in 2019 was replaced by the city.
The plaque features a quote from King: ‘We must use time creatively … and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.’
The plaque also features a list of people who had sponsored the statue’s construction.
At the time of the theft, police said the plaque was worth at least $950, meaning prosecutors could charge whoever stole it with felony grand theft.