NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Mayor Bill de Blasio may have put himself in a First Amendment predicament when he decided to paint “Black Lives Matter” on streets across the five boroughs.
Last month, de Blasio announced the city would paint “Black Lives Matter” street murals in every borough and rename streets to match the message on the heels of nationwide racial injustice protests following the death of George Floyd.
But his decision opened him up to scrutiny when he prevented others from painting messages of their own on city streets.
“Once the government allows one message, one expression on a public street to be painted, they’re opening the door for other groups or individuals to want the same equal right,” said civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel, who previously served as the head of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“If you have a position that no expression [can be] on the public streets, that’s one thing, but the government can’t pick and choose which messages, which expression they approve of and which they reject based on the content of the message,” he said.
De Blasio said he would not allow police advocacy group Blue Lives Matter to paint their own message near the NYPD headquarters, prompting the group to threaten to sue the city to allow them to do so.
A conservative women’s group has sued the city for blocking them from painting a mural of their slogan — “Engaging, Inspiring and Empowering Women to Make a Difference!” the New York Post reported.
And the city recently sent Staten Island artist Scott LoBaido a cease and desist letter asking him to remove a bright blue line he painted along a divider on Hylan Boulevard outside of the 122nd precinct or face getting hit with summonses or “legal actions.”
LoBaido painted the line without city approval, arguing “the mayor never got a permit to do that street art, so I guess it’s fair game.”
DID DE BLASIO GET APPROVAL?
City Hall says there is a Department of Transportation application process groups have to go through to get their street murals approved, a process it said Blue Lives Matter did not complete.
But the mayor’s press secretary Bill Neidhardt said it was not “open season to paint our streets,” arguing that “Black Lives Matter” was a “moral statement.”
Siegel pointed out that it becomes problematic if the mayor did not submit an application to paint his Black Lives Matter street murals but is asking other groups to apply.
It is unclear whether de Blasio submitted an application or received a permit for his street murals. City Hall and DOT have repeatedly avoided saying whether the mayor submitted an application before he proceeded with his street murals.
The administration says it takes each mural on a case-by-case basis if an applicant goes through the proper application process.
However, DOT has also not said how it determines what can and cannot be painted on city streets.
“A remedy could be none at all,” Siegel said. “If you begin to allow one, you’re inviting challenges to the others.”
Officials In Redwood City, California ran into a similar problem when they allowed a local resident to paint “Black Lives Matter” on a downtown street.
The city decided to wash the the street mural away after being contacted by a local real estate attorney who asked to paint “MAGA 2020” on a street, KPIX reported.
The attorney argued that the street was now a public forum.
‘I DON’T CHOOSE TO BE BLACK,’ ISLAND YOUTH ORGANIZER SAYS
Donovan Robinson of West Brighton, who helped organize peaceful youth-led racial injustice protests on Staten Island, said he is personally not a fan of the mayor’s Black Lives Matter street murals.
Robinson thinks they don’t do enough to address the problem of systemic racism and police brutality and only opens the mayor up to scrutiny from other groups wanting to paint their own messages.
“I appreciate the gesture,” Robinson said of the mayor’s street murals. “But that’s what it is, nothing more than a gesture, and now we have this vacuum, the Blue Lives Matter propaganda is now coming into play, and that blue line is literally a line in the sand of intimidation, when you come to these neighborhoods, now you know exactly where this neighborhood stands.”
On the one hand, as a Black man, Robinson said he is opposed to the city allowing Blue Lives Matter street murals and the blue line on Hylan Boulevard because he believes the message and the group stand in opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement.
But as an American citizen, he said that on the other hand, he understands those groups have a right to free speech just like him.
“I cannot take off my skin, my skin does not clock out at any point in the day,” Robinson said. “Blue is the color of a shirt, you choose to rock that shield, you choose to stand up to that code, but at any time you can hand in your resignation papers.
“Your blue life being on the line is your choice, I don’t choose to be Black,” he said.
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