In Salt Lake City, murals memorializing George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others come tumbling down
When the walls of a vacant public building in Salt Lake City became a fabric to commemorate the victims of the police violence, it gave the area of 8.5 acres known as Block “a sense of culture” to the city, which is mostly white.
“This is for a wrong reason – death at the hands of the officers – but it was a place for us to mourn the respect for the lost life,” said Mona Robinson, who lives in a suburb of Salt Lake City.
She said this space for respect has now been, as Block Fleet Block and its red and exhausted parties – including the similarities of George Floyd and Brioen Taylor – have been destroyed for several weeks to make way for housing, small companies and open public spaces.
The demolition of murals is not associated with the command of President Donald Trump, the executive of what he calls “Divide” documents of American history In gardens and public museums, but this procedure, “in some respects, explains what we care about, whether here or anywhere else in America,” Robinson said.
After the killing of Floyd nearly five years ago by a white police officer in Minneapolis, this part of the city became a crowd point for the demonstrations of social justice. Memorial services have been held there, soon An unknown group of artists I started to draw the faces of the people who were killed during interactions with the police. The building was located on the city owned by the city, where the fleet of transport operations was once present.
Robinson said: “Now it is over. This is sad,” Robinson said.
The city said that the cost of maintaining murals has become very expensive, and other factors such as asbestos in decomposing buildings made it dangerous.
in Last week’s statement on Instagram, Darren Manu, a member of the Salt Lake City Council, admitted the importance of the fleet block as a sacred place for residents and “the place of mourning for families and a strong invitation to reform the police.”
“I understand how difficult to see this space changes. But I hope that it will keep it as a place for thinking, communication and society.”
Jovany Mercado-Bedolla, whose brother was shot by the police in August 2019, I told Salt Leck Tribune He destroyed the destruction of the wall, which carried a picture of his fallen brother.
“We hoped that the mural would be the change,” said Mercado. “To see them come down, [we’re] Feeling defeat. Now we only hope that the city will remain deaths with their word. “
City officials have informed the plans to demolish the site for the residents for years. All the city has the exception of one part of the mass, with one special ownership building. After the city council announced plans to raise the site In 2022Family members asked the victims from the city to preserve the spirit of murals in a respectable and appropriate way.
In new plansOfficials pledge to link with three acres of public open space and are distinguished by the work of artists commissioning to honor social justice. But for local families for those who were revived, what was It could not be dispensed with.
“This was a protest wall,” said Ray Dakrith, head of the city’s black life department in front of Tribune. Her cousin, Bobby Ray Dakrith, 26, was killed by an officer in Utah in 2019. “The space was designed out of love.
