Responding to formal charges filed this week by the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office, a 49-year-old man pleaded not guilty Thursday to vandalizing a street mural last year.
"It's getting easier to do the work because it's not just a couple of voices, it's lots of voices," said artist Abi Mustapha. "It's certainly not perfect and there's certainly a lot of burnout and a lot of ways to go but I think it's the mess of the middle, which is better than the start."
A suspect was caught on CCTV vandalising a Black Lives Matter mural in Santa Cruz on Saturday, 29 July. Footage released by the Santa Cruz Police Department shows an individual approaching the mural on Center Street in broad daylight. It came just over a month after the art was restored following a previous act of vandalism. Brandon Bochat and Hagan Warner were sentenced to pay restitution fees and serve community service for their roles in leaving trails of burned rubber across the painting in July 2021.
“What I know after living here in Santa Cruz for 21 years, . I can’t say it enough: Santa Cruz, y’all gotta step it up,” Santa Cruz NAACP President Elaine Johnson said.
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