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A Vicious Hate Crime Occurred on February 26, 2004<br>
Mission Mural Attacked Again With a Hammer<br><br>
To all concerned:<br><br>
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.<br><br>
This is the second time that this mural has been attacked by this hammer
wielding member of our community. <br>
He must be stopped.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
Responses are being planned.<br><br>
<b>Your help, suggestions and support is requested. <br><br>
</b>In Struggle....<br><br>
Susan Greene<br>
415-271-0576<br><br>
<br>
Susan,<br><br>
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. <br>
About 15 minutes later the banging started again.<br>
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.<br>
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. <br>
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<br><br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
Cesar Mejia<br><br>
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Description of Person<br><br>
Height: about 5'10" - 6'1" tall<br>
Weight: about 190 - 225lbs<br>
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.<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
</font><font size=3><a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
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