Harlem

Black Lives Matter Mural in Harlem Damaged by Tire Tracks: Organizer

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A Black Lives Matter mural painted on the street in Harlem appeared to have been vandalized over the weekend.

Community organizers say the lettering painted Friday on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and 126th Street was damaged by tire tracks from a group of bikers and a lone vehicle. The mural was paid for by the community and isn't one of the six murals that will be painted across the city by Department of Transportation workers.

The bike riders who showed up on the closed street on Saturday and rode over the newly painted mural were a group of people "with ill intent who clearly thought this was action against the Mayor," said Valerie Wilson, a spokesperson for Harlem Park to Park. "They were aggressive, said they don’t speak to women and insisted that their thousands of bikers remove our barricades and roll over our murals."

On Sunday morning, Wilson said the barricades around the mural were moved and someone in an SUV drove over the mural and left tire marks that had to be painted over again.

"I'm just going to redo it and get it back to what it was supposed to look like," artist LeRone Wilson said on Sunday. "I'm not going to worry about this. I'm going to have a positive attitude just like what this is about."

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