Vandals deface Des Moines murals with racist graffiti

Alex Ivanisevic | The Des Moines Register

Racist graffiti discovered on three Des Moines east-side murals has people "upset and disturbed."

"When I first saw it, my heart sank," said Brian Bonanno, community development director for the Community Housing Initiative. He's also curator of the murals created through a program he runs in three east-side neighborhoods.

Bonanno became aware of the graffiti Friday afternoon on the murals that are within a few blocks of each other on East Grand Avenue. He filed a police report shortly after, he said Sunday.

Sgt. Paul Parizek, spokesman for the Des Moines Police Department, wasn't available for comment Sunday.

Bonanno said he's spoken with people in the community, the property owners and business owners at the mural locations.

"Everybody is upset and disturbed by the messages of the symbols of the graffiti," he said. "Mostly I think they're sad that we can't have those nice things without somebody feeling the need to express themselves through hate, jealousy and anger."

Bonanno and a friend Friday night painted over two nooses that were painted onto one of the murals because "we weren't going to let that be up any longer."

The project cost about $8,000 to complete, and Bonanno estimated repainting could cost about $5,000, according to police records. The artist who painted the murals had to be flown in from out of state.

Police are hoping a nearby shop owner's surveillance cameras captured footage of vandals, according to police records.

In response to the defaced murals, Bonanno launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to pay for a couple of the artists to repaint what was ruined.

More than $3,000 has been raised.

Although the experience of discovering the graffiti was dreadful, Bonanno said it reaffirmed to him why he got involved with creating the murals in the first place.

"We'll continue to grow our programs and drown out the message of hate with beautiful things," he said.