Advocates call for hate crime charges for woman who defaced Pilsen mural
A nonprofit civil rights advocacy group called Wednesday for hate crime charges to be brought against a woman accused of attacking another woman, who caught her defacing a painting of a Palestinian man on a mural in the Pilsen neighborhood.
Natalie Figueroa said she was walking home from her workplace late Friday when she noticed a woman defacing the mural on 16th Street and Ashland Avenue. When Figueroa tried to interfere, the woman struck her in the head with a metal three-hole punch and pummeled her face. Onlookers called the police, who arrived at the scene but made no arrests.
Representatives at CAIR-Chicago, which advocates for civil rights for Muslims, urged Chicago police to charge the suspect with aggravated assault and a hate crime. Various speakers at the news conference lamented the desecration of a mural that they saw as a symbol of peace.
No arrests had been made in the alleged attack, police said Wednesday evening.
The mural, painted by Palestinian artist Taqi Spateen, depicts a Mexican man lying in a field with a Palestinian man, and is meant to represent solidarity between the Latino and Palestinian communities. The woman who vandalized the artwork burned off the section depicting the Palestinian man's face.
'Here in Chicago, we are seeing a significant escalation of hate crimes rooted in anti-Islamic and anti-Arab sentiment,' said Heena Musabji, legal director at CAIR. 'We are here to demand … that criminal actions based on hate are charged as actual hate crimes.'
A still-bruised Figueroa, who sported a sizable lump on her forehead, told reporters she approached the woman and yelled at her to stop defacing the mural. The woman, she said, swung around with a metal three-hole punch in her hand and hit Figueroa on her head.
As the women fought, Figueroa ended up on the ground, the other woman pinning her down and repeatedly pummeling her face. Figueroa said that her assailant taunted her during the attack, jeering that police would not arrest her.
So far, Figueroa has been unable to prove her wrong. CAIR's news conference urged Chicago police to arrest the suspect, who, according to Figueroa, walked away from the scene after police had arrived and was not followed.
Four days after the attack, Figueroa still had two black eyes and a bruised left arm. Arriving at her job at the event space Hoste on Wednesday morning, she said, she was confronted with 'Nazi symbols' spraypainted on the building. She believes them to be related to Friday's incident.
Human rights attorney Farah Chalisa is working in partnership with the legal team at CAIR to represent Figueroa and another victim, who was attacked by the same woman at the same mural in May.
'What happened was not simply an act of vandalism — it was a hate-driven assault,' Chalisa said.
A hate crime charge is a Class 4 felony in Illinois.
Spateen's mural was commissioned as part of the Mural Movement, founded in 2020 by Delilah Martinez. All 231 murals Martinez has organized nationwide are related to social justice and peace. Spateen is from Bethlehem, a Palestinian town, and is staying in Chicago as part of an art residency. His mural, one of dozens in Pilsen, is the only work that the suspect has defaced. According to Figueroa and the other victim, she has thrown trash at the mural and placed feces around it.
'This mural — if that's not an artwork of love, I don't know what love is,' said CAIR Executive Director Ahmed Rehab. 'The defacing of that mural — if that's not an act of hate, I don't know what hate is.'
Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez, 25th, explained that many people in Pilsen view the attacker as a threat. Last week, Lopez said, she showed up at a community meeting wearing a wig and sunglasses and prompted Lopez's staff to call security.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Highland Park police shoot, kill man armed with knife during well-being check
Police in Highland Park, Illinois, shot and killed a man they said was armed with a knife during a well-being check early Friday morning. According to Highland Park officials, officers conducted a well-being check of a man in the roadway in the 900 block of Half Day Road just before 5 a.m. Police said the man "quickly charged at officers with a knife," prompting officers to fire shots. The Highland Park Fire Department arrived minutes later and tried to help stabilize the man. Officials said life-saving measures were not successful, and the man died on the scene. The Lake County Major Crimes Task Force is conducting an independent investigation. The area will remain closed between Western and Compton avenues due to police activity. This is a developing story. CBS News Chicago will continue to provide updates.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Gunman opens fire on Brooklyn street, kills man, 38
A 38-year-old man was killed when a gunman opened fire on a Brooklyn street, striking him multiple times, police said Friday. The victim was on Marcy Ave. near Park Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant — across the street from NYCHA's Marcy Houses — at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday when the gunman stormed up to him. The gunman blasted away at his victim, who suffered 'multiple gunshot wounds,' police said. EMS rushed the victim to Kings County Hospital, but he couldn't be saved. His name was not immediately disclosed as cops track down family members. The gunman ran off. No arrests have been made. A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear. Cops were searching the area for surveillance images that could help them identify the shooter.
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Police investigate deadly hit-and-run in Westlake District near southbound 110 Freeway
The Third Street off-ramp of the southbound 110 Freeway in the Westlake District is closed while police investigate a deadly hit-and-run. The California Highway Patrol has issued a Sig Alert for the next couple of hours due to police activity. Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department received calls around 4:30 a.m. about a man who was on the ground near the intersection of Beaudry Avenue between Second and Third Street. When police arrived at the scene, they found a man on the road and pronounced him dead. Police believe he may have been hit by a vehicle and they are investigating the incident as a hit-and-run.
