{"id":3323,"date":"2020-07-08T21:36:53","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T21:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=3323"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:52:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:52:59","slug":"pavement-protest-murals-will-they-stay-or-will-they-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2020\/07\/08\/pavement-protest-murals-will-they-stay-or-will-they-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Pavement protest murals: Will they stay or will they go?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Chances are you\u2019ve spotted them on social media streams: super-sized words painted on pavement outside two government buildings in downtown Durham. <\/span> Talking back<\/b> The action occurred during week three of national demonstrations against racism and police violence after George Floyd’s death on a Minneapolis street. An officer, since charged with murder<\/a>, kept pressing a knee into Floyd’s neck after the handcuffed man repeatedly said he could not breathe.<\/p>\n Durham Beyond Policing<\/span><\/a>, a coalition of activist groups planned the pavement-art protest. The group was formed in 2016 to oppose the construction of the new Durham Police Department Headquarters, <\/span>which cost $71 million<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cJuneteenth means abolition,\u201d organizers wrote on the Durham Beyond Policing page on Facebook, referencing <\/span>police abolition<\/span><\/a>, a movement seeking to replace police and prisons with other approaches to community safety.<\/span><\/p>\n The coalition had organized a mass email campaign urging City Council members to redirect police funding to education, health care, and alternative community safety programs. After all City Council members voted to pass the city\u2019s proposed 2020-2021 budget <\/span>at their June 15 meeting<\/span><\/a>, supporters of the coalition were disappointed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe unanimous vote really hit our collective and community very hard,\u201d said Kyla Hartsfield, an organizer with Durham Beyond Policing. \u201cWe tried through comments, emails \u2013 and here\u2019s another way to push the message of defunding the police,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n During the event, participants went to work with paint rollers, spelling out big yellow letters and an arrow pointing at the police headquarters on East Main Street.
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\n<\/span>\u201cDEFUND\u201d yells one in large yellow letters in front of the police department headquarters. \u201cFUND\u201d demands the other, outside the Durham County Human Services Complex a block away.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>People pushing for massive change in local policing created them in protest last month, days after the City Council approved the city\u2019s $502.6 million 2020-2021 budget. Tucked inside was $70.3 million for the police department, a 5% spending increase from last year\u2019s budget. <\/span>
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\n<\/span>What\u2019s not known is how long the street murals will remain. City officials with the Cultural and Public Art Program and the transportation department remain undecided about keeping the pavement art, city spokesperson Amy Blalock told 9th Street Journal.<\/span><\/p>\n
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\n<\/span>On June 19, scores of people answered a call from local activists to join a \u201ccommunity art action\u201d and rally coinciding with Juneteenth. That’s the holiday commemorating June 19, 1865, when the last group of enslaved people in the Confederate states learned the Civil War was over and they were free.<\/span><\/p>\n
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\n<\/span>As police officers and volunteers diverted traffic, protesters marched one block down the street to paint again, this time with an arrow pointing to a building hosting county services such as public health, social services, and veteran services.<\/span><\/p>\n