[News] Mission Mural Attacked WITH A HAMMER Again

[News at freedomarchives.org]

A Vicious Hate Crime Occurred on February 26, 2004
Mission Mural Attacked Again With a Hammer

To all concerned:

This is to let you know that on February 26th, La Lucha Continua/The 
Struggle Continues was again attacked with a hammer, leaving three large, 
gaping holes.  The worst hit was the portrait of Rachel Corrie; the young 
woman who, one year ago, was run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 
Occupied Palestine.  The portraits of Mumia Abu Jamal and Bernadette Devlin 
were also destroyed.  Two days later racist and misogynist words were 
written on the what is left of Rachel Corrie's portrait and on Nelson 
Mandela's likeness.

This is the second time that this mural has been attacked by this hammer 
wielding member of our community.
He must be stopped.

As you will read in the attached report, the upstairs neighbor was awakened 
by the hammering and called the police three times - to no avail.

Responses are being planned.

Your help, suggestions and support is requested.

In Struggle....

Susan Greene
415-271-0576


Susan,

How are you doing?  My sister told me that you wanted some info on what 
happened the night your mural was vandalized.  It happened between 4 and 
5am on Thrusday Feb. 26th.  At first I heard some type of banging (which 
turned out to be hammering).  I got up from bed and went to the window to 
see what was happening.  I could not see what or who was downstairs because 
of the scaffold.  I saw someone walk towards Capp St. about a minute 
later.  I called the police and informed them that there was someone 
defacing the mural and that they should send a car immediately to see if he 
was still around.  I waited by the window and didn't see anyone on the 
street so I decided to go downstairs and have a look and what had been 
done.  It turns out that one of the faces was broken up (the one closer to 
the middle of the mural.  The police did not show up so I went upstairs and 
went back to bed.
About 15 minutes later the banging started again.
This time I called the police immediately and gave them a bettter 
description of the person vandalizing the mural.  I told them that he was 
in the act of defacing the mural and that they should send a car right away 
because they would catch him in the middle of it.  He was there for at 
least 4 more minutes in which he damaged the faces closer to our front 
door.  The police showed up about 5 minutes after he had walked away in the 
direction of Capp St. again.
He came back a third time and hit the mural a few more times (all of the 
faces).  At this point it was becoming a bit ridiculous that the police had 
not caught him in his three visits to the mural.  This third time I got a 
very close look at his body and his clothing, but not his face because he 
was wearing a hat.  The last time there were two police cars driving around 
for a few minutes looking for him.  I believe they received more calls from 
other neighbors.  The looked (from the car) under cars and up and down the 
block using the light attached to the car.  I don't know if they found him.
I hope this helps.  If you have any other questions or need any other 
information, feel free to contact me at this e-mail address.  I'll give you 
the physical description below.  I truly hope that this doesn't happen again


Sincerely,
Cesar Mejia


Description of Person

Height:     about 5'10" - 6'1" tall
Weight:    about 190 - 225lbs
Clothing:   Wearing a Light Brown / Dark Tan Jacket, Blue Jeans, white Nike 
shoes, and a Fedora type hat Brown with Black trim (the style former mayor 
Willie Brown wears).  He had a more stauky build and he smoked a cigarrette 
after each time he came to the wall.  He had a small hammer that he 
concealed in his inside jacket pocket.



The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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