SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — In San Francisco a mural celebrating LGBT and Latino culture is defaced for the third time in less than a week.
Black spray paint mars the mural. The faces of the two same sex couples and the transgender man have been scribbled over. The title of the piece, “Por Vida” which in English means for life, was also crossed out.
Vandals first struck the mural last Monday.
At first, only the same sex couples in the painting were vandalized, the transgender man in the middle left alone. But someone posted a message about the attack on social media, then on Tuesday, the rest of the mural was defaced, according to Henry Pacheco, Galeria De La Raza spokesperson.
Because the artwork is a digital mural, the art gallery had the work re-printed and pasted up only to have it vandalized again. In the days since the first tagging, new surveillance cameras were installed which caught the third defacement on video.
Police say they are investigating this as a hate crime and are looking at the surveillance footage.
The attacks have spilled over to social media with messages containing slurs and violence against the art gallery and Manuel Paul, the Los Angeles-based artist that painted the mural. The posts are also threatening anyone who buys shirts that that artist designed which feature a Spanish homophobic slur.
“If you see anyone wearing this particular tee shirt….jump them,” says one comment.
Pacheco says they aren’t angry, just disappointed.
It’s going to cost the non-profit art gallery roughly $3,000 dollars to replace the mural again. They are trying to raise those funds hoping to be able paste the work up again by the end of the week.