Two black women dumped paint on a "Black Lives Matter" mural on a street outside Trump Tower in Manhattan on Saturday in an attempt to cover up the slogan.
The video: While pouring the black paint over the yellow letters, Bevelyn Beatty, a 29-year-old pro-life activist and evangelist from Staten Island, accused the Black Lives Matter movement of being anti-black.
- "Black Lives Matter, but you want to defund the police for black people," she said in a live video that was posted to her Facebook page and widely circulated online.
- "They're lying. We're not standing with Black Lives Matter," she said. "You all don't care. Refund the police!"
- The mural near Trump Tower had previously been defaced three times in the past week, as have similar paintings in other U.S. cities.
We are going to take our country back! By any means necessary!!! #RiseUp #JesusMattersWe are going to take our country back! By any means necessary! #JesusMatters #RiseUp We Are: At The Well Ministries #USA #Trump2020 #NYC #NewYorkCity #ReFundThePolice #GodBlessBlue ( #BlackLivesMatter #BLM is a domestic terrorist organization. They don't care about black lives. They support the killing of more than 600K Black Babies every year! ) - - - - - - - - - **UPDATE** Our Website www.AtWellMinistries.org is currently crashed. We are working on getting it back up ASAP. Many have been messaging us asking how they can help and how to donate. For those who have asked how to donate and help financially please choose one of the following ways. 1. Donations can be made on our website (once back online )https://atwellministries.org/give/ 2. Quickpay with Zelle | Use info@atwellministries.org 3. Cashapp - https://cash.me/$atthewell 4. PayPal - use email address info@atwellministries.org #JesusMatters
Posted by Bevelyn Beatty on Saturday, July 18, 2020
New York Police Department officers arrested Beatty along with her fellow activist and Long Islander Edmee Chavannes, 39.
- Beatty and Chavannes were charged with criminal mischief, but they were released just hours later.
- According to followup Facebook videos, Beatty and her crew went on to splash paint on two other officially sanctioned "Black Lives Matter" murals, in Harlem and Brooklyn, respectively, overnight Saturday.
- In a video on Sunday, Beatty said, “Y’all, we did an all-nighter. Let me tell you something, yesterday was epic.”
- She said the police had treated her and Chavannes "like princesses."
Bernard Kerik, a former New York City Police Department commissioner, used Beatty's stunt to criticize Mayor Bill de Blasio for allegedly not cracking down on unrest in the city linked to nationwide protests against police and racism.
.@NYCMayor @BilldeBlasio Why is it that the NYPD was ordered to stand down for #BlackLivesMattter thugs that engage in arson and looting, but anyone that goes near your #BLM mural gets locked up. You are nothing but a thug yourself.
— Bernard B. Kerik (@BernardKerik) July 18, 2020
Beatty previously gained attention in June when a video of her arguing with demonstrators in Seattle's "Capitol Hill Occupied Protest" zone went viral.
- "These Democrats… they hate black people," she said in the clip.
Crime wave: As violent crime has spiked in New York City, a number of black community leaders have come out against Black Lives Matter's campaign to defund law enforcement.
- A June Monmouth poll found that 72 percent of black Americans were satisfied or very satisfied with their community police.
- Still, a June Pew survey found that 86 percent of them supported Black Lives Matter.
