A statue of George Floyd has been vandalized just four days after it was unveiled.

According to NYPD, the Union Square Park statue in New York was targeted on Sunday, October 3, with a police source telling Insider that the crime was discovered at around 10:15 AM.

"Preliminary investigation determined that an unidentified individual threw gray paint on the face and base of the statue. There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing," NYPD said in a statement.

According to WNBC, the statue was unveiled on Thursday, September 30, as part of the "SEEINJUSTICE" exhibition which also features other statues of important Black figures including Breonna Taylor.

Per Reuters, Floyd died in May of last year after he was stopped by Minneapolis police on suspicion of using a fake $20 bill, which resulted in Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, despite Floyd's protests that he could not breathe.

Taylor, a Black woman, meanwhile, lost her life to police in March of 2020 when they shot and killed her during a botched raid on her apartment, according to The New York Times.

Credit: Alamy / Pacific Press Media Production Corp

The two deaths resulted in mass protests across the US and the world in the name of Black Lives Matter and to protest police brutality.

The artist who created the statues, Chris Carnabuci, told CNN that while he wasn't shocked the Floyd statue had been defaced, he was upset.

"I'm not shocked, but I'm still p***ed," he said. "It's a very counterproductive thing to do, and it's not the kind of civil discourse - the keyword being civil - I wanted."

Credit: Pacific Press Media Production Corp. / Alamy

A team of volunteers subsequently cleaned up the statue after it was vandalized, CNN reports.

"It was really hard to see this larger-than-life man like this," Harmony Seaburg, one of the volunteers, said. "We're trying to get all the paint off his face, but it's very emotional."

This is not the first time that a statue of Floyd has been a vandalism target, and earlier this year, a statue of him was vandalized by a white supremacy group.

Featured image credit: Alamy / Christopher Penler

A George Floyd statue has been vandalized by a white supremacist group in Brooklyn.

The incident is now being investigated as a hate crime by the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force, NBC New York reports, with the department revealing that the damage to the statue, which was only recently unveiled, was discovered on Thursday morning (June 24).

Watch a news report about the incident below: 

The statue was painted black, and the name of a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center had been spray painted to its pedestal.

Images of four suspects walking along Glenwood Road and Flatbush Avenue before the incident took place were released by police on Thursday, with one of them appearing to shake a can of spray paint.

Credit: NYPD

Flatbush resident Courtney Nelson said that she was disgusted by the damage to the statue in her neighborhood.

"This is unacceptable - as a humanity, as a race, as a whole," Nelson said. "We will be back, we're gonna clean it and keep moving forward."

NBC New York reports that Floyd's brother Terrence had been present for the unveiling of the six-foot statue on Sunday and said it was an important way to keep his brother's memory alive.

"It's a major statement for a major person," Terrence Floyd told NBC. "To see Brooklyn represent him, and honor him on a national holiday, it's all love."

Terrence is pictured below speaking at the event.

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New York City Council Member Farah Louis, a Democrat and vice co-chair of the Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus, condemned the vandalism in a statement released on Thursday (June 24).

"Let us be clear: this is a shameful act, a hate crime and totally disrespectful to the memory of Mr. Floyd and to the Black community as well our efforts to achieve racial justice and equality. And we will not be deterred," Louis said.

"I ask anyone with information to please come forward and contact the NYPD. My office is working with artist Chris Carnabuci, ConfrontART and the We Are Floyd Foundation to repair the damage to this beautiful and moving work of public art."

Lindsay Eshelman of Confront Art told News 4, "to bring it here was a collaborative community effort and we will not let this vandalism, or should I say, 'hate,' deter our message... the art is here to speak for itself and we are going to restore it so it can do that."

Featured image credit: Alamy / David Grossman

Legendary NBA player, Michael Jordan, has vocally supported the protests that have swept the US following the death of George Floyd.

Floyd, an African-American man, was arrested by Minneapolis police on Monday, May 25th, for reportedly using a counterfeit $20 note in a store. While being detained, Derek Chauvin - a 19 year veteran of the force - knelt on his neck for eight minutes, which resulted in him losing consciousness, and later passing away.

Protests, both peaceful and violent, have since broken out across the country, with people demanding that all four officers involved be brought to justice.

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Jordan, who has previously been criticized for failing to comment on political issues, said that he was "deeply saddened, truly pained and plain angry," in a rousing statement posted to his social media accounts.

"I see and feel everyone's pain, outrage and frustration. I stand with those who are calling out the ingrained racism and violence toward people of colour in our country. We have had enough," he continued.

"I don't have the answers, but our collective voices show strength and the inability to be divided by others. We must listen to each other, show compassion and empathy and never turn our backs on senseless brutality. We need to continue peaceful expressions against injustice and demand accountability. Our unified voice needs to put pressure on our leaders to change our laws, or else we need to use our vote to create systemic change. Every one of us needs to be part of the solution, and we must work together to ensure justice for all.

My heart goes out to the family of George Floyd and to the countless others whose lives have been brutally and senselessly taken through acts of racism and injustice."

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Jordan, who is now the owner of the Charlotte Hornets, has been condemned in the past for not using his influence and platform to speak up about racial injustice. He infamously said, "Republicans buy sneakers, too," after refusing to endorse an African-American Democrat against an incumbent Republican politician with a history of racist behavior in a 1990 Senate race.

He has since claimed that the comment was not meant to be taken seriously - a fact that he corroborated in his recent Netflix documentary, The Last Dance.
On Friday it was revealed that Chauvin had been detained and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. He was arrested by the state’s bureau of criminal apprehension.

Floyd's family has since released a statement calling Chauvin's arrest a "welcome but overdue step on the road to justice” and added that members “expected a first-degree murder charge" - which they still demand.

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"The pain that the black community feels over this murder and what it reflects about the treatment of black people in America is raw and spilling out on to streets across [the country]," the statement added.

The statement concluded by saying:

"Today, George Floyd's family is having to explain to his children why their father was executed by police on video. It's essential that the City closely examines and changes its policing policies and training procedures to correct for the lack of proper field supervision; the use of appropriate, non-lethal restraint techniques; the ability to recognize medical signs associated with the restriction of airflow, and the legal duty to seek emergency medical care and stop a civil rights violation."

Under Minnesota law, a first-degree murder charge would require prosecutors to prove Chauvin’s actions were willful and premeditated.

In footage of the arrest, George Floyd can be heard pleading for help - repeatedly telling officers that he couldn't breathe. He then became unresponsive during the arrest and was later pronounced dead.

Watch a news report on protests in Minneapolis below, where a white CNN journalist describes how differently he was treated by police at the demonstration: 

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The Mayor of Newark says replacing the Christopher Columbus statue with a monument of Harriet Tubman is "poetic."

Per CBS News, Mayor Ras Baraka spoke about the new sculpture of the famous abolitionist that will replace Columbus' old spot in Washington Park in a recent interview on Friday, June 18.

Per the above publication, Baraka stated: "I think it's a little better than what we envisioned. I think that it's going to turn out to be something great."

He continued: "Harriet Tubman actually stepped foot here in this property, Christopher Columbus did not.

"So, it seems more appropriate to have a statue of Harriet Tubman and talk about the abolitionists' work that went on that most people in New Jersey don't even know [...] fighting against a system that was trying to allow slavery in this state."

Newark city council commissioned Nina Cooke John to design the circular monument, which has been named 'Shadow of a Face.'

It features a ceramic-based mosaic of Tubman's face along with text marking the history of the Underground Railroad and the safe houses throughout the state of New Jersey, to debut in the summer of 2022.

Per CBS, John commented on her design in a news release by stating: "As a woman, a Black woman, and mother of three girls, I am delighted to bring my memorial for Harriet Tubman to life in Newark.

"My design creates a welcoming space for people to connect with Tubman as well as interact and reflect on their own liberation from whatever weight they might be carrying. This is a monument for the community and by the community."

Credit: Alamy/SOPA

This comes not long after a 700-pound bronze sculpture of George Floyd was erected outside Newark city hall. Per CBS News, Barak commented on the significance of the statue in a ceremony held on Wednesday, June 16, stating:

"All of the activity that took place around this country because of the untimely and vicious murder of George Floyd, and all the activism that sparked out of it, is worth us pausing and paying attention to."

Watts stated: "The world needed a peaceful George. The world needed him relaxed and chilling on a bench and that's what we produced and we produced him larger than life.

"Because after death, George will be remembered; and that's what memorials are. It's to remember and never forget why we changed today and tomorrow and for the rest of our existence on this planet."

Featured Image Credit: Alamy/ZUMA Press Inc

Murals of Kobe and Gigi Bryant remain untouched amid the George Floyd protests.

George Floyd died on May 25. He was an African-American man who passed away after being detained and arrested by American police.

Police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck during the incident, and he has since been fired and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

Per the Guardian, after reviewing the bodycam footage of Floyd's arrest, state charging documents allege that the now-former Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyd's neck for a total of nearly nine minutes.

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Floyd's death has reignited the Black Lives Matter movement and sparked protests around the world, but one thing that has remained untouched are murals of Kobe and Gigi Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in January.

News of the untouched murals was broken by Vanessa Bryant on Instagram, who took to Instagram stories to share messages from fans revealing that they have remained unharmed.

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This comes as numerous other murals have been destroyed in the protests, and Vanessa was understandably moved by the fact that those of Kobe and Gigi had not been vandalized.

The widow shared a mural of Kobe and a young Gigi after he won a championship, writing: "Kobe and Gigi untouched. LA."

"Kobe and Gigi mural saved, LA," she wrote alongside another of Gigi on her father's shoulders.

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[[imagecaption|| Credit: Instagram / Vanessa Bryant]]

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Instagram / Vanessa Bryant]]

Prior to addressing the untouched murals, Vanessa commented on the situation currently taking place urging people to "spread love" and "teach respect and love for all" following the death of George Floyd.

"Teach respect and love for all at home and school. Spread LOVE. Fight for change- register to VOTE. Do not use innocent lives lost as an excuse to loot. BE AN EXAMPLE OF THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE. #BLACKLIVESMATTER."

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A list of resources to help the Black Lives Matter movement can be found, here.