>> Police are investigating the disappearance of a Breonna Taylor sculpture
that was vandalized two weeks after it was installed in downtown Oakland. But now it's
just missing. So the New York Times reports that the sculpture was smashed in several places late
last week, drawing widespread condemnation in the community and promoting a police investigation.
A plaque with Taylor's name and the phrase Say Her Name was displayed on the front of the statue.
And so, the investigation is ongoing, but what really stands out here is, number one,
this is in Oakland, California, which is not known as some conservative utopia at all.
But it doesn't matter, of course, even in a place like Oakland you can have people who get offended
by a statue honoring Breonna Taylor.
I also want to remind you all that Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by cops in Louisville,
Kentucky, who conducted a no knock warrant on the wrong address. And then just started
shooting indiscriminately, which of course ended up killing Breonna Taylor in her own
apartment. She bled out on the floor of her own apartment even though she's not a criminal.
She hadn't done anything wrong, she was an innocent person who was the victim in this
case. And simply acknowledging her and honoring her through a statue offended
people. When creator Leo Carson passed by the statue again on Tuesday it was gone. Police
did not immediately respond to questions about whether or when the sculpture had been removed.
And the sculptor who is white, said that he expected the statue to draw some racist
aggression. Carson chronicled the installation on Instagram. And one person warned that at the
time that it could face a backlash, pull that down the person wrote. It's a source of riots.
And then Carson says that the vandals are continuing their campaign of intimidation
against Black Lives Matter and we must resist their attempt to erase Breonna's image.
Cenk. >> For the racist who did it,
she's already dead. What else do you want? So you want to attack her
after she's already died? And remember, she didn't do anything wrong. Sometimes,
or a lot of times, the right wingers will say yes, but he didn't listen to every command of the cop.
Or he said something rude to the cop, so he deserved to be shot in the back seven times.
Or he ran away from the cops, so I'm glad he got shot and
murdered and etc. And he once smoked pot like three years ago and had detention for it, etc.
But with Breonna, they killed her in her sleep and she hadn't done any wrong. She's an upstanding
citizen. So they have nothing to smear her with, but they still hate her. Remember,
she didn't do anything. She was the one who was killed. And they're like, yeah but,
other people complained about you being murdered, so I hate you and I want to desecrate a monument.
Now it's in a sense a monument. What is it that the right wing
really is animated about? Protecting the monuments of Confederate generals. So people
who fought for slavery, who killed for slavery. Who killed Americans to be able to keep black
people as property and take away all their freedoms and their dignity and their humanity.
They should be protected. Some of those monuments are to grand Wizards of the Ku Klux Klan.
They should be protected. But Breonna Taylor, who was murdered in her sleep.
Let's go vandalize that monument. >> I mean, two years ago,
The New York Times wrote about a sign that was erected where Emmett Till
was tortured and murdered after he was falsely accused of whistling at a white woman.
And Emmett Till was a teenager. He was an innocent teenager who was brutally tortured
and murdered. And ever since it's been erected, the sign, let's take a look at the picture.
There have been gunshots, people have shot at it. It's been vandalized several times.
It doesn't matter if the person who's being remembered or honored was an innocent victim,
someone who needlessly lost their lives.
Once you bring the issue of race into it, these are the kinds of monuments and signs
that end up getting absolutely destroyed. Well, you're right Cenk, they'll go ahead and support
the Confederate statues that honor people who were traitors to the country.