PALO ALTO, Calif. — The City of Palo Alto — in the Silicon Valley — is being sued by five police officers who claim the government entity allowed the creation of a Black Lives Matter mural containing anti-police images that constituted harassment and discrimination against law enforcement.
One of the images in the mural painted in the street across from City Hall last June was a likeness of Assata Shakur — real name Joanne Chesimard, a 1970s Black Liberation Army member — who was convicted in the 1973 killing of a trooper from the New Jersey State Police, according to the lawsuit filed last month in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Shakur is infamous in the law enforcement community after she escaped from prison and fled to Cuba. To this day she has not been brought to justice.
Cece Carpio is the artist who painted the Shakur portion of the mural. She said last year it was necessary to include the fugitive in the creation since the nation’s “status quo” sees her as a threat to “racial capitalism and white supremacy,” according to the Daily Post in Palo Alto.
Originally, the mural was designed to remain in place for a year following the death of George Floyd, but it was gone by November.
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The lawsuit also says the mural included the logo of the New Black Panthers, a hate group that has encouraged violence against white and Jewish people as well as law enforcement officers, KTLA reported.
The Palo Alto Police Department is located on the opposite side of City Hall from the mural. The two vehicle entrances to the department are a half block from where the mural had been located.
“Defendants created and allowed to exist the aforementioned discriminatory and harassing work environment,” the lawsuit said. “Not only did the defendants allow the harassing and discriminatory iconography to exist in the workplace, but they also sanctioned, approved, encouraged, and paid for it.”
The National Police Association demanded the mural’s removal in July 2020, saying it was an “atrocity” to celebrate a fugitive convicted cop killer in front of City Hall, according to Daily Post.
“Law enforcement officers, including Plaintiffs, were forced to physically pass and confront the Mural and its offensive, discriminatory, and harassing iconography every time they entered the Palo Alto Police Department,” the lawsuit said.
Police personnel told city officials the mural violated the state Fair Employment and Housing Act. Nevertheless, their complaint was disregarded as the city “ratified the conduct and insisted that it remain and persist,” according to the lawsuit.
City Attorney Molly Stump told the news organization that the city has not been served with the lawsuit. She did not immediately return a phone call to the Associated Press seeking comment.
