A George Floyd statue, which was unveiled less than a week ago in New York City, was defaced by unknown persons on Thursday, a day before the police officer charged with his murder was to be sentenced, the Mayor of New York City said.
“Last night a far-right extremist group vandalized a statue of George Floyd in Brooklyn.
A racist, loathsome, despicable act of hate. The City Cleanup Corps is repairing the statue right now and a hate crime investigation is underway.
We will bring these cowards to justice,” Bill de Blasio said on Twitter. A statue of George Floyd in Brooklyn was installed to commemorate the Juneteenth, Liberation Day, the end of slavery in the US.
Early on Thursday, the monument was spray-painted black and marked with the name of a white supremacist group Patriot Front, that originates from neo-Nazism, The New York Times reports. George Floyd died in May 2020 in Minneapolis during a brutal arrest by the police officer Derek Chauvin.
The case provoked a massive movement against police violence and racism. Chauvin is now under arrest and is to be sentenced soon.
