Rantz: Artist bragged he got Seattle tax dollars to paint anti-police messages
Oct 8, 2020, 5:49 PM
Demonstrators fill an intersection near a Black Lives Matter street mural during protests on July 26, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)
(Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)
A Seattle artist bragged that the city used tax dollars to pay for his anti-police art just a block away from a police station.
The city of Seattle agreed to spend tens of thousands of dollars to restore a Black Lives Matter mural near the East Precinct after rain damaged it. As a concession to activists, the city gave the Vivid Matter Collective permission to recreate the mural, paying 16 artists over $50,272 to share equally amongst each other.
But one artist, who goes by the moniker Future Crystals, tagged the art with vicious anti-police messages. He sure was excited that he was getting paid by the city to rip on cops.
Rantz: Mayor Durkan calls media criticisms about hiring ex-pimp ‘racist’
Apparently the city of Seattle is paying artists, including this militant streamer to permanently restore the Black Lives Matter mural outside the CHOP zone. "ACAB," "no good cops in a racist system," & "abolish ICE" (among other things) are now officially endorsed by the city. / pic.twitter.com/XHFuspU0qf
— Kitty Shackleford (@KittyLists) October 7, 2020
Seattle tax payers funded anti-cop art
During a live stream, the artist showed off his work. The messages he added to the mural including “ACAB,” “no good cops in a racist system” and various vulgarities leveled against cops.
“The funniest thing about this is the city of Seattle is paying me to do this! It’s beautiful, you know what I’m saying?” he told his live stream. “No good cops in a racist system, city of Seattle. Jenny Durkan? You’re next. You can’t hide.”
After the city caught wind of this disgrace, they were forced to act.
“We reached out to VividMatterCollective and learned that one of the artists added these words recently without notifying the other artists. Our understanding is that the collective will be asking him to remove the words,” a spokesperson for the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture tells the Jason Rantz Show.
PERSONAL EDIT: Artist “Future Crystals” says he’s going to clean up the anti police messaging right now. Vivid Matter Collective was hired by the city to make the #BlackLivesMatter mural. Some of it’s members told me this is vandalism and not part of the original design. #seattle pic.twitter.com/IJULtq51p3
— Jonathan Choe Journalist KOMO News (@choeshow) October 9, 2020
Messages come down
The spokesperson says the mayor doesn’t agree with the messages and that the tax payer dollars spent were not supposed to be for these types of messages. The city technically, however, didn’t ask them to remove the messages, but came to an agreement.
“This news was a surprise to both the City and Vivid Matter Collective and we both felt that removing the additional language was the best course of action.”
Late Thursday afternoon, artists were seen painting over the hateful messages.
Why the city would choose to do business with an anti-police activist? Pandering to city activists, most likely. Last week we learned Durkan offered a low six figure contract to a former pimp.
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