The fresco produced in Stains (Seine-Saint-Denis) in tribute to George Floyd and Adama Traoré was vandalized in the night from Saturday to Sunday, we learned Sunday from a prefectural source. Findings were made Sunday morning by the police, according to the same source. The words "extortion", "theft", "stop Traore", "robber of pregnant women" (sic) were written in white and red paint on the faces of the two men, according to images broadcast Sunday morning by BFMTV.
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This fresco produced by a collective of local artists has been the subject of controversy since its creation in mid-June. On June 22, 200 police had demonstrated in front of the Bobigny prefecture at the call of the Alliance union to condemn the text written under the faces of the two men - "against racism and police violence". At the same time in Stains, 150 people had gathered in front of the controversial fresco at the call of the Adama Traoré Committee.
A decried fresco
After having received a delegation of police officers, the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis had given notice to the PCF mayor of the city, who had inaugurated this fresco, to modify the text. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner estimated the following day on Twitter that the fresco "staged a shameful amalgam between racism, violence and the police" and supported the "initiative" of the prefect.
"The prefect warns me to remove the word 'police' from the fresco. This injunction was that of the police union Alliance. I don't understand the meaning of this unfounded formal notice," AFP said on Thursday the mayor, Azzédine Taïbi, who mandated his lawyer "to study the follow-up to be given to the prefect". "If this fresco disappears, if a letter disappears, the only responsible will be the Alliance police union," said Assa Traore, Adama's sister, on videos relayed on social networks.
The fresco represents on a blue background decorated with clouds, the faces of George Floyd, black American asphyxiated by a white police officer during his arrest in the United States, and Adama Traoré, died in July 2016 after his arrest by the gendarmes at Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val-d'Oise)