Anti-Racist Mural In London Is Latest To Be Targeted Following Black Lives Matter Protests
An anti-racist mural depicting the moment a Black Lives Matter supporter rescued a far-right protester has been removed just days after it appeared in south London.
The artwork in Lewisham becomes the latest with an anti-racism message to be targeted after similar incidents in Manchester, Dundee and Glasgow.
It featured the image of Patrick Hutchinson carrying ex-British Transport Police officer Bryn Male over his shoulder, with the message: “We don’t rescue racists in Lewisham, we run them out” written over the top.
It was a nod to the 1977 Battle of Lewisham where hundreds of violent National Front activists were literally run out of town by anti-racism campaigners.
However, on Monday a white man not from the borough was seen covering it with blue paint.
In a video posted to his Twitter account, anti-racism campaigner and former Met officer Adam Pugh – who added the wording to the original mural – approaches the man and says: “Didn’t like what was there before, no?”
The man, who calls himself “Butch”, replies: “Wasn’t me. Anything that goes up on here if it gets bombed or tagged out then it needs to be cleaned.”
When pressed on why he was painting over the mural, he stated he was doing it “off his own back”.
The mural, painted on the hoardings surrounding the £375 million Lewisham Gateway development, was created by local artist Lionel Stanhope on Monday last week after he sought permission from developer Balfour Beatty to transform the site into a public gallery with the help of ten other local artists.
The wording, however, was added on Saturday by Pugh after a conversation with Stanhope regarding a backlash over the original painting.
Critics say the frequent mainstream use of the image shows an obsession with Black respectability – an implication that victims of racism should meet bigotry with kindness even when faced with the threat of violence.
Speaking to HuffPost UK, Pugh, who is white and a life-long Lewisham resident, revealed...
