George Floyd mural covered up after ‘racist message painted over it’

The George Floyd mural painted on the Outhouse in the Northern Quarter’s Stevenson Square has been defaced, according to eyewitness reports this morning. 

Police have been on the scene this morning, after reports of the mural being painted over with a ‘racist message’.

The message has now been covered up by police.

One eyewitness, out for a run this morning, passed the mural just before the police covered it up.

She said she felt ‘really saddened’ by what she saw. The witness explained she ‘100%’ saw the ‘N-word’ sprawled across the mural. 

She told Proper Manchester: “I was running through Stevenson square at about 8.30 this morning when I saw that something had been graffitied over the mural of George Floyd.

“As I got closer I realised the word that had been daubed across it – we can all imagine what the word is – and it made me feel not only angry but a deep sense of sadness that someone intentionally set out to hurt and anger a large section of society.

“There was a lot of talk during the BLM protests about the U.K. not having a problem with racism like the USA has – I think this is representative of that not being the case and shows there is still a long way to go.”

George Floyd, an unarmed African-American, was filmed struggling to breathe while a white male police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes until he eventually stopped breathing.

Mr Floyd’s murder sparked huge protests against racism across the world and a resurgence in the Black Lives Matter campaign. Across the world, thousands took part in peaceful BLM protests aimed to highlight the significance of, and widespread, institutional racism globally. 

His face was used as imagery as part of the resurgence of the campaign and hundreds of murals appeared across the world, including one in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. 

The mural has been present since early June, reminding Mancunians that despite the marches, protests and campaigning racism hasn’t gone away. On June 6th the mural found itself surrounded with bunches of flowers and cards.

Placards with the slogan ‘Black Lives Matter‘ and others with ‘justice for George Floyd’ and ‘The UK is not innocent’ from the protests were left surrounding the mural following the end of the march. 

More information to follow…