A 6- to 7-foot image of Gov. Paul LePage dressed in Ku Klux Klan regalia has been spray painted on a wall along a Portland walking trail that has always been used as a place to legally post graffiti.
Advertisement
Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling pushed for removing the mural, saying it borders on hate speech.
“I do not want it up there”. “The KKK has a long, problematic history in the state of ME and equating the governor and his rhetoric, as much as we disagree with it, is a step too far”.
The street art was painted on a wall belonging to the East End Wastewater Treatment Facility sometime within the past week. The Ku Klux Klan has a long, deep and bad history in Maine.
“It’s understandable why people are using this as a symbol to express their disagreement and outrage with what LePage has said”, Robert Trestan of the The Anti-Defamation League told the Bangor Daily News.
The mural also included the words “Dump LePage”, according to the Press Herald.
In later explaining himself, LePage described Maine’s problem of opioid addiction that resulted in a record 272 overdose deaths previous year in terms of war, saying it’s important to identify the enemy and then to attack the enemy.
At first, the site notes, officials with the water district seemed to agree that the mural should remain, however later Tuesday, water district spokeswoman Michelle Clements said that the district’s general manager would be discussing the issue with the city to determine what, if anything, should be done.
Someone altered the mural Tuesday night to remove all KKK imagery and instead add Mickey Mouse ears to LePage’s likeness.
Advertisement
LePage apologized and blamed the media for fueling the controversy.
