On Thursday, July 11 Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporters in painting the now-famous Black Lives Matter words in giant yellow letters outside Trump Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

On seeing the group on television paint the street outside his former residence, President Donald Trump called the BLM words “a symbol of hate”. The following day, the mural site attracted both Trump and Black Lives Matter supporters, with members of the NYPD standing between the two groups to keep the peace.

However, the NYPD is now asking the public’s assistance in identifying individuals who poured red paint onto the mural on Monday, July 13 at around midday. The perpetrators later fled the scene in an unknown direction, as passing cars spread the paint across the length of the mural, smearing the lettering.

The men depicted in the video surveillance and photo are wanted for questioning in connection to the incident which has been described as criminal mischief.

There has been a growing number of confrontations between Blue Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter protestors in recent weeks across the City. When a Blue Lives Matter protest was organized on June 30 in Morris Park in the Bronx, Black Lives Matter counter-protestors were also present.

As the chants of Black Lives Matter supporters began to drown out the Blue Lives Matter speakers, tensions escalated and Blue Lives Matter supporters were later seen on video getting up close and into the faces of the Black Lives Matter counter-supporters, with verbal insults being thrown at them.

However, in another video, a Black Lives Matter protestor is seen being pushed to the ground, tased and later arrested by NYPD for no apparent reason.

The following videos contain language that some may find offensive.

Dyker Heights, Maspeth, Middle Village, Howard Beach, Riverdale, south shore Staten Island, parts of Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge, Whitestone, Douglaston all places rotten of white supremacists https://t.co/6CLl8RQ0A2

— Kayla (@kaylapop_) July 11, 2020

This is Morris Park. The Bronx. NYC.

These guys were having a "Blue Lives Matter" rally. And this is how they reacted when they heard someone say #BlackLivesMatter

These racists are way too comfortable.

📽️: @WaluigiSoap pic.twitter.com/SMxECvAiEj

— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) July 1, 2020

Anyone with information with regard to the Fifth Avenue incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on Twitter @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.