George Floyd mural defaced with n-word ‘lives don’t matter’

The mural, defaced sometime after Chauvin's verdict announcement, was immediately fixed. But police note there aren't cameras.

Biba Adams

Apr 23, 2021

A mural honoring the life of George Floyd in his native Houston, Texas was defaced with the words “n***ers lives don’t matter” over the man’s face.

The colorful wall painting — located on the Houston Graffiti Building at Chartres and Bell streets in downtown Houston — was created shortly after Floyd’s death at the literal knee of now-former police officer Derek Chauvin. On Tuesday, a Minneapolis jury convicted Chauvin of his murder.

A colorful mural honoring the life of George Floyd in his native Houston by artist Daniel Anguilu was defaced — and not for the first time — but has since been repaired by Anguilu. (KHOU 11)

The mural was defaced sometime after the verdict announcement, and police are investigating the incident. They noted there aren’t surveillance cameras at the site that may aid in the investigation.

The artist who created the mural reportedly repaired it immediately.

Daniel Anguilu condemned the act of vandalism. “As a human, it’s just wrong to do something like that,” he told KHOU, “knowing that we’re healing and knowing that we’re in pain as a community.”

“As a person of color myself … I understand hate,” he said, “but I also learned to navigate and deal with it in a different way — and for me, that is art.”

Anguilu revealed this isn’t the first time the mural was defaced. He said that for him, those incidents serve as “a reminder that we just have to keep working and continue to do the work that we believe in.”

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner made clear the department plans to hold the person responsible there accountable for their act. “If there’s people with bad hearts and bad motivation, don’t give them the power,” he said at a Thursday news conference. “Here in Houston, we’re gonna stick together.”

As previously reported, Chauvin faces up to 12 and a half years in prison for either second-degree unintentional murder or third-degree murder, according to sentencing guidelines. Second-degree manslaughter has a maximum four-year sentence. Aggravating factors could determine a longer sentence of up to 40 years.

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