December 28, 2020

"Oakland’s Ceramic Bust Of Breonna Taylor Smashed In Brazen Act Of Vandalism."

CBS Local reports.

Who would do such a thing?

124 comments:

campy said...

OMG someone Vandalized a Statue!!! The HORROR!!!

I literally can't even.

Michael K said...

“Looks like they hit it with a baseball bat along the back,” said Carson, who does not believe the vandalism was random. He said he thinks it was an attack against the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I don’t think there’s a single person in Oakland who doesn’t know who Breonna Taylor is, and I don’t think you attack a sculpture like that by accident,” he said. “And I think that it was an act of racism and an act of aggression and intimidation.”

Breonna Taylor was a Kentucky woman killed during a police raid. “Say her name, Breonna Taylor” has become a civil rights call for justice.


It begins. False Flag ? Who cares ?

Mark O said...

Brazen? Hardly. It was done in secret.
Vandalism? No. It was semi-peaceful protest.

Ken B said...

Who would smash a statue of Frederick Douglass? Or Abraham Lincoln? The logic of vandalism.

Iman said...

Perhaps someone mistook it for Beyoncé?

PM said...

The hatred of whitesupremacistracistfascists had quieted down with the de-election of Trump, so, yo, we need to be re-energized.

Howard said...

Let's sweat the small stuff.

Old and slow said...

She was a true patriot and a hero, right...?

Darcy said...

Chickens coming home to roost. Let us smash all the things.

Joe Smith said...

Who cares?

Just tell the cops it was a 'protest.'

Joe Smith said...

I'm beginning to think the Islamists have it right.

No statues of people...everyone is flawed...there are no heroes.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Probably the same people who beat up Juicy Smolette.

tcrosse said...

The attack would have been truly brazen if the statue were made of brass.

BUMBLE BEE said...

The Patron Saint of Narcotics Money Laundering? Oh! The Horror!

BUMBLE BEE said...

She was shot in her bed which was around the corner where her body dropped? Racism is sneaky!

Ann Althouse said...

Why was a ceramic bust put out where it was unguarded at night? Were cameras pointed at it? Was it made from a mold so it can be reproduced? It's hard to believe a handmade one-of-a-kind piece would be set up on the public sidewalk where it could be attacked, especially in this time when statues are being attacked.

BUMBLE BEE said...

I'd suspect Dr. Mabuse!

Joe Smith said...

"It's hard to believe a handmade one-of-a-kind piece would be set up on the public sidewalk where it could be attacked, especially in this time when statues are being attacked."

You've obviously never been to Oakland.

It's a woke utopia...a progressive wonderland...a place where marijuana smoke and brotherhood mingle in the air.

If people can shit on the sidewalk, and throw away used needles on the sidewalk along with used condoms, then a statue is obviously safe.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Anger and rage were cultivated by our corrupt press.

William said...

There's a pretty good chance that this was a faux hate crime. Those fucking fauxists. Someone should start an anti-fauxist movement and bring those people to a reckoning......The sculpture itself wasn't all that impressive. Maybe someone felt that they were dishonoring the memory of Breonna Taylor by erecting such a second rate sculpture.

Francisco D said...

Breonna Taylor was a Kentucky woman killed during a police raid. “Say her name, Breonna Taylor” has become a civil rights call for justice.

How about a call for not dealing drugs and not shooting first at cops?

If this is what the Marxists are hanging their hats on, they are truly pathetic.

The Vault Dweller said...

Why was a ceramic bust put out where it was unguarded at night?

That was my question, but more so from a environmental point. I'm certainly not an artist so I have no familiarity with the material but I can't think of any other statue displayed outside publicly that is or was made of ceramic. How many years would it have lasted anyway assuming no vandalism? Oakland isn't Seattle, but it sure isn't a desert. It gets 24 inches of rain a year. Combine that with the wind, and temperature changes how long was the bust going to be last? How long before it just starts showing signs of wear? This is all ignoring the fact that lots of people want to non-maliciously touch statues. Look at old Abe Lincoln's nose where he is perched on top of Bascom Hill; bright and shiny as the rusted metal is constantly rubbed off.

The Vault Dweller said...

I have since looked it up and apparently ceramic statues outside are very common. Rather than hide my ignorance I will leave it on display.

Richard Dolan said...

"Who would do such a thing?"

For months, it's been open season on statues of all kinds. Why would anyone think that this one was special?

rhhardin said...

I've heard of Oakland. Are we against statue removal now, I've lost track. Put in a Confederate general.

tommyesq said...

The sculpture itself wasn't all that impressive. Maybe someone felt that they were dishonoring the memory of Breonna Taylor by erecting such a second rate sculpture

I dunno, considering it was made by "a sculptor who was working as a food server before the COVID-19 crisis caused restrictions to the restaurant industry" rather than by a professional artist, it doesn't seem so bad.

DavidUW said...

1) the 'square' is a rather small triangle intersection of the termination Telegraph into Broadway in Oakland.
2) the 'square' is dominated by a rather nice art deco flat iron building but unfortunately the outdoor area has the usual quotient of bay area bums and the street level shops on either side are now about 90% vacant and 70% boarded up.
3) who cares. Oakland has a few other things to worry about.

rhhardin said...

Probably a piñata enthusiast.

Browndog said...

Who would do such a thing?

My exact thought reading someone made a bust of Breonna Taylor.

Browndog said...

Maybe it was someone that had a family member that was an actual victim of actual police brutality that is fed up.

rhhardin said...

Busted bust.

rhhardin said...

The nice thing about Oakland, as I recall, is that the runway ends in water so your DC6 across the Pacific can take off heavy, not having to climb much before the Golden Gate bridge.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

What goes around, comes around.

William50 said...

If it was made of solid zirconia ceramic the vandals would have had a difficult time breaking it.

I'm Full of Soup said...

"It's hard to believe a handmade one-of-a-kind piece would be set up on the public sidewalk where it could be attacked, especially in this time when statues are being attacked."

Maybe the sculptor smashed it because he's looking to get paid again to redo the statue.

mockturtle said...

They must have mistaken her for a Confederate general.

Skippy Tisdale said...

It dawned on me today when reading a story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about Sibley High school removing Of Mice and Men from their library shelves. It said it was done because some found it offensive. Actually, they want it gone because it's informative.

In the story, the black character on the ranch is segregated into his own living quarters. Would that happen in America today? Of course not. But showing how much worse things were back then destroys the narrative that things are even worse now.

MadTownGuy said...

"Who would do such a thing?"

I'm guessing Althea Bernstein.

MadTownGuy said...

"Who would do such a thing?"

I'm guessing Althea Bernstein.

Skippy Tisdale said...

Blogger Iman said...
Perhaps someone mistook it for Beyoncé?


That's gold Iman. Gold!

Rory said...

"There's a pretty good chance that this was a faux hate crime."

Misdeeds requiring stealth are usually done by those who traverse an area without drawing notice.

Birkel said...

This is Freeman Hunt approved behavior.
The new norms will be applied everywhere or nowhere.

jaydub said...

"Who would do such a thing?"

Probably one of the 624,890 citizens of Louisville, each of whom was assessed $19.20 for Breonna's $12 million death settlement, a death, by the way, that was at least partially due to her own actions.

Ice Nine said...

>>Ann Althouse said:
Who would do such a thing?<<

That's an extraordinarily naive question.

holdfast said...

Becky With The Good Hair!?!

Mary Beth said...

Maybe the sculptor smashed it because he's looking to get paid again to redo the statue.

Maybe two guys in MAGA hats.

The GoFundMe to redo it in bronze seems to be doing well. $6,570 raised of $5,000 goal.

Michael K said...


In the story, the black character on the ranch is segregated into his own living quarters. Would that happen in America today? Of course not. But showing how much worse things were back then destroys the narrative that things are even worse now.


At schools like Dartmouth, the black students are all resegregating themselves. Happening in America today, but it's OK. "Separate but Equal."

mikee said...

You think this sculpture destruction was pointless? Here in Austin a 6 foot tall luchador grackle sculpture made of recycled bike tires was destroyed by arson, right in front of City Hall. Ganador is no more.

Balfegor said...

My guess is local youths causing the usual mayhem, particularly given that the statue seems to have been smashed incompletely from the back, not pulverised from the front. The Bay area has a lot of people who go around smashing car windows and shopfronts for the hell of it. And Oakland has seen a big increase in that sort of crime.

Tom said...

The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles

rhhardin said...

Black students segregate themselves so that they're not always surrounded by people a lot smarter than they are. It's a side effect of affirmative action.

Furthermore, down the line somewhere, it will be the fault of whites.

Rusty said...

Was it fulla candy? 'Cause that would explain a lot.

Browndog said...

Rusty said...

Was it fulla candy? 'Cause that would explain a lot.


Pay the man.

hawkeyedjb said...

"Who would do such a thing?"

Who would destroy a statue of Hans Christian Heg? Oh, probably the same sort of people.

Steven said...

What kind of racist engaging in aggression and intimidation would strike the bust from behind, leaving the face intact, and wouldn't take a second swing to smash the face?

So, if we're going to assume this was something other than a random punk engaging in vandalism for the sake of vandalism . . . let's follow the money, to coin a phrase.

"Carson said he will rebuild the bust, and has started a GoFundMe page to raise money to recast the statue in bronze."

An unemployed food server/sculptor could probably really use some money to cover his living expenses (which, of course, would be part of the expenses of his making a new bust). And it's probably a lot easier to raise money to make a new bronze bust if the previous bust was destroyed by "an act of racism and an act of aggression and intimidation" that made the news, than if the original was intact.

hawkeyedjb said...

"Were cameras pointed at it?"

Maybe. But if they showed a Person of Color performing the vandalism, the tape will be stored somewhere in the Bay.

Inga said...

“Blogger Birkel said...
This is Freeman Hunt approved behavior.
The new norms will be applied everywhere or nowhere.

12/28/20, 12:59 PM”

There goes Birkel, doing his creepy stalking thing again. What did Freeman Hunt ever do to him? Express an opinion he didn’t like?

“Who would do such a thing?” Weirdos like Birkel.

Rabel said...

A white man like Leo Carson has no right to sculpt a representation of the beautiful Black body that was Breonna.

Whoever destroyed this racist abomination should get a medal. Or maybe a statue.

Clyde said...

Obviously a case of mistaken identity. They must have intended to smash the ceramic bust of the boyfriend.

Browndog said...

All those FBI agents keeping a keen eye out for racist garage door pull ropes just got re-assigned.

Oh Yea said...

Sounds like somebody was making a political statement by destroying the sculpture that was erected as a political statement.

Hanoi Paris Hilton said...

Where's the bust of His Holiness, St. George Floyd? Speaking of busts, here's Ann Coulter on St. Breonna...
https://anncoulter.com/2020/12/16/breonna-taylor-the-true-story-of-a-blm-herox/

MD Greene said...

I'm sorry it was smashed, but in my experience Oakland is not a gathering spot or a residential hub of white racists.

Self control is not a "thing" at the moment. Manhattan buildings are covered with graffiti the way MTA trains were 40 years ago. People smash statues for fun. None of it is profound -- it's just frustration being vented.

NCMoss said...

I'm glad to see the commentariat responding to Althouse's trolling with the sarcasm and wit it deserves.

Browndog said...

There goes Inga again, creepy stalking Birkel. For what? Expressing an opinion she doesn't like?

Ken B said...

Althouse's question is either arch, or revealing. She has no trouble understanding why other statues were destroyed.

Could be a fake crime too, false flag.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Maybe a Louisville Slugger done it!

Mid-Life Lawyer said...

Maybe an energy beam came out of the sky and blew it up. They are trying to cause a race war to distract from the Georgia Senate race shenanigans. Hopefully they cleaned all the Anthony Warner DNA out of the energy beam generator or he may be a patsy for the sculpture incident as well.

Inga said...

“There goes Inga again, creepy stalking Birkel. For what? Expressing an opinion she doesn't like?”

No, he can express himself ad nauseam. What I’m doing is giving him some of his own medicine.

FullMoon said...

Surreptitious performance art.

NCMoss said...

A commenter said:

No, he can express himself ad nauseam. What I’m doing is giving him some of his own medicine.

More effective than the balm of Jed Bush???

FullMoon said...

Nobody in Bay Area heard of the artist or the statue beforetoday.

Now both are famous.

Tina Trent said...

Who cares?

Human cops are pelted with bricks and bottles all day. More than 700 police have sustained serious injuries this year at the hands of BLM and Antifa garbage.

When you can “say their names,” get back to me about the desecration of an idiotic public memorialization of a drug dealeress.

Bunkypotatohead said...

"On Sunday night, Joe Cotchett came forwarded and said his Burlingame law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, would fund the restoration of the damaged sculpture.

“It’s scandalous and outrageous that anybody would do such a thing,” Cotchett said, explaining the vandalization of the sculpture makes him livid, particularly because Taylor was an emergency medical worker who was shot multiple times by Louisville, Ky., police in her own home. “She was a wonderful human being … The whole situation is preposterous — first her death, and now this.”


That could been spoken by Jackie Chiles.

bagoh20 said...

"“I don’t think there’s a single person in Oakland who doesn’t know who Breonna Taylor is,..."

That certainly explains why the statues of famous historical figures of great bravery or ideas were vandalized: public maleducation.

How many Antifa and BLM activists know that Fredrick Douglas was not a white supremist of the past.

Mikey NTH said...

"Who would do such a thing?

After this summer the answer is "a lot of people."

Mary Beth said...

$8,028 raised of $5,000 goal

Michael K said...

“Who would do such a thing?” Weirdos like Birkel.

And to think I even complemented her earlier today for posting about policy and not ad hominem (except at me).

Even if her links don't say what she thinks, she tried. One of those performance trophies, please.

bgates said...

Who would do such a thing?

I don't know who it was, but everything up to this moment about xim is spectacular.

Robert Cook said...

It's not hard to make guesses as to who might have done it.

I'm Full of Soup said...

So the sculptor will get paid again tp make another bust. He's my No. 1 suspect.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Well them make a guess Cookie if it's so easy. We love it when you are wrong. So far, Inga has blamed the Boogaloo Boys and Readering has blamed Trump.

Kevin said...

It's hard to believe a handmade one-of-a-kind piece would be set up on the public sidewalk where it could be attacked, especially in this time when statues are being attacked.

The people who can tell the good statues from the bad ones believe they can put up new good ones which everyone will respect.

That's how you know they're batshit crazy.

Michael K said...

Blogger Robert Cook said...
It's not hard to make guesses as to who might have done it.


Cook is going to show us a Trump supporter in Oakland. Ever been to Oakland, Cook ?

Inga said...

“So far, Inga has blamed the Boogaloo Boys...”

Excuse me? Where have I done this regarding the smashing of the ceramic bust of Taylor?

Owen said...

I was going to suggest a GoFundMe was appropriate but it turns out that's already happening for real. With any luck the pledges will hit 6 figures; maybe with some further staged outrage they can push toward 7 figures. Way cheaper and easier than, you know, working.

And there's nothing wrong with it. It's voluntary; and clearly it is money that the donors want less than they want the frisson of virtue that comes with Showing The Uncaring Bigoted World That It Shall Not Prevail. Generating that frisson is now one of the biggest economic drivers in the country. And under Biden/Harris, with careful nurturing and leadership, it could become one of our major exports.

Inga said...

“And to think I even complemented her earlier today for posting about policy and not ad hominem (except at me).”

What ever are you talking about? I have not mentioned you or referred to you in any way today.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I can see into the future Inga - you will blame the Boogaloo Boys eventually.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Betcha it was not a white Republican!

chuck said...

The Bay area has a lot of people who go around smashing car windows and shopfronts for the hell of it.

I left a motorcycle parked by the curb in NY City, when I came back someone had cut up the seat with a knife. I'm pretty sure they were protesting Mayor Lindsay :)

Birkel said...

My understanding is that one should never feed the trolls.

hawkeyedjb said...

"Betcha it was not a white Republican!"

Both of the white Republicans living in Oakland were home that night.

madAsHell said...

One of those performance trophies, please.

I think you meant participation trophies.

Performance trophies are handed out by the adult entertainment industry. A friend told me.

Rabel said...

I would take a look at the white supremacist "Umbrella Man" who was responsible for all the rioting in Minneapolis last Summer.

He's still on the loose.

pchuck1966 said...

Anyone seen Hilaria in and around Oakland?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I tell ya, I gotta plead ignorance on this thing

Amadeus 48 said...

"Breonna Taylor was a Kentucky woman killed during a police raid. 'Say her name, Breonna Taylor' has become a civil rights call for justice."

!. What does she have to do with Oakland, California?
2. Does anyone else find her taste in men, well, dubious?
3. First it was Martin Luther King, Jr. who was memorialized to the point of totemization. I think everyone is OK with that (although one of my friends observed that his son, who went to elementary school in Highland Park, Illinois, was taught a lot more about Martin Luther King than about George Washington). Now, some extremely shady characters are being memorialized--not to say that Breonna Taylor was such a person. Would anyone be surprised that some random acts of vandalism might occur to such memorials?
4. They came for Nathan Bedford Forrest; they came for Robert E. Lee; they came for Christopher Columbus; they came for Hans Christian Heg; they came for Abraham Lincoln. Why would anyone think that Breonna Taylor would be sacred? Once you start defacing and tearing down memorials, it is open season on all of them. Different teams appear on the field to take on different objects of veneration.
5. I don't know why the BLM people should even get a hearing on this one. They like tearing down memorials to great Americans. What did they think would happen to their objects of veneration?

Unknown said...

In my little peaceful town with a community college, the easily manipulated, young white girls have proposed we need a monument in town. The model is like a totem, with faces carved into the 'obelisk'. Martin Luther King, Jr., of course. Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and some lesbian feminist who wanted free tampons, or something.

Pres. Ronald Reagan never understood that the greatest threat to the USA in the '80s was NOT the USSR. It was the nascent US Dept of Education. I curse Sec'y of Ed. Bill Bennett to this day for not seeing the power of Progressives to infest the minds of children nationwide.

Temujin said...

The better question would have been, "Who wouldn't?"

Amadeus 48 said...

The left co-opts everything. There could be a movement to promote chastity, and Chelsea Clinton would end up running it at a salary of $750,000 per year, with the Pajama Boy as her principal lieutenant getting $350,000.

Kirk Parker said...

Who wouldn't, Temujin?

I, for one. I will state right now for the record that I have no intention of ever traveling to Oakland, not for any purpose whatsoever.

Amadeus 48 said...

To Kirk Parker--A famous daughter of Oakland said that there is no there there.

gpm said...

>a story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about Sibley High school removing Of Mice and Men from their library shelves. It said it was done because some found it offensive. . . .

>>In the story, the black character on the ranch is segregated into his own living quarters.

Was that really the "offensive" part that got the book dropped? If so, this is just jaw-dropping. The interaction between Lennie and "the black character" was revealing about race relations at the time. How are we supposed to react to that?

--gpm

Jupiter said...

"It's hard to believe a handmade one-of-a-kind piece would be set up on the public sidewalk where it could be attacked, especially in this time when statues are being attacked."

Althouse is beginning to acclimate to the Democrats' new, improved approach to maintaining public order through exterior design. No ceramics, no wood, no glass. Nothing that breaks, nothing that burns. Steel, concrete, stone and razorwire.

Dude1394 said...

Maybe someone who was beaten up or their business burned “in her name”. She is a figurehead for a Marxist violence group, who cares but good for them.

madAsHell said...

Who??

DavidUW said...

$8k will probably pay for the "artist" to move out of Oakland.
Which I bet he does soon.
to a different state.

More than likely Texas or Florida.

Bob Loblaw said...

Who would do such a thing?

Who would build a statue for someone with no other claim to fame than victimhood?

LA_Bob said...

Bob Loblaw said, "Who would build a statue for someone with no other claim to fame than victimhood?"

In the future everyone will have victimhood for 15 minutes. Everybody will have won, and all must have statues!

Mark said...

equality for all

Birkel said...

Amadeus 48:
You have identified the pattern of destruction.
But the reasons for the destruction remain elusive.
Anybody willing to give an inch to the destroyers deserves the destruction certain to follow.

No Danegeld, ever.
Let's all practice to get rid of the Dane.

Kirk Parker said...

Amadeus,

I might need to revise my plan: hard to avoid a place if you can't tell if you're there or not.

Michael K said...

I have not mentioned you or referred to you in any way today.

Thank you. Notice no mention of anything nice I might have said about her.

D. said...


""Oakland’s Ceramic Bust Of Breonna Taylor "

How about that dead body in Breonna's car?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Presumably nice people like Prof. Althouse will want the guilty parties to suffer the same legal consequences as the people who tore down other statues this summer had to suffer, right?

I mean we certainly can't have two systems of justice/punishment! Imagine how awful that'd be.

Curious George said...

Dr. Brazen Vandalizer did it.

stlcdr said...

Seems that the 'who would do such a thing?' has an implicit '!' along with 'Brazen[!]'. I read it the second time as sarcasm on AA's part.

mtrobertslaw said...

How do we know the person who did this was not another artist whose intent was to create some kind of deep artistic message? After all, only the back of the bust was destroyed while the face was left entirely intact.

wildswan said...

I think the statue, unrepaired, should be moved to the Museum of Modern Art and put in the front lobby. With a sign saying, "Have We Come To This?"

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

the plywood replacement will be inspiring!

but seriously--
maybe it was Keith Ellison or Raph Warnock thinking it was their S.O.

Amadeus 48 said...

Have you ever noticed the condition of Roman and Greek statuary from antiquity? What happened to the faces?

Sam L. said...

I can not get myself to care.

Deep State Reformer said...

LOL! This reminds me of the National Lampoon cover from 1972 that featured Korda's iconic photograph of Che Guevara defaced with an ice cream cone along with the caption, "Is nothing sacred?" Again LOL mofos.

n.n said...

First, they came for the babies. Then, they came for the words, the books, the culture. Finally, they came for the statues. A predictable progression.