Victims rally for hate crime charges after woman attacks, vandalizes Pilsen mural
Chicago police are looking for a woman who they say ran off after getting into a fight with another woman who caught her vandalizing a solidarity mural in Pilsen Friday night.
Located at 16th and Ashland, the mural represents peace, love and solidarity between the struggles of Mexican and Palestinians.
However, the victim said she was attacked for speaking up against hate. On her route home, Natalie Figeuroa witnessed a woman with a white paint can by the mural.
"I love this mural, I pass it every day and knew the people who did it, I knew that white paint did not belong there," Figeuroa said.
She said she then took out her phone to film and try and get the woman's face to document the crime.
"Then I looked at the words, and she wrote 'Israel' all over it. So, I knew it was about hatefulness," she said.
The person also defaced the the Palestinian man's face on the mural.
Figueroa said that when she approached the woman and was asking her to stop, she was attacked, hit with a metal hole punch, and left with two black eyes.
Figeuroa fell to the ground. Cell phone video captures the woman sitting on top of Figeuroa. "She told me that the police aren't going to believe me," she said. The person who captured the video can be heard calling 911.
Figeuroa claims that the woman was still sitting on top of her when the police arrived. The police report says that the woman fled in an unknown location.
"My body's aching. I have physical scars. My head is messed up. She destroyed my glasses, which is how I can see," she said. Figeoura fears that people will come after her for speaking out. "I would feel safer if they detained her, none of us are safe right now," she said.
Laith, who doesn't want to give their last name, said they, too, were attacked by the same woman on May 9. The suspect was defacing the mural, and they also tried to stop it.
"I pull out my phone to film her, and at that point, she knocks my phone out of my hand. She starts punching me. She grabs my clothes," they said.
Chicago police said the two women argued by the mural in the 1600 block of West 16th Street on Friday. They confirm it turned physical when the suspect hit Figueroa in the face.
"We call on the police department, along with CAIR, to make sure that this is addressed as an act of hate," attorney Farah Chalisa said.
Chalisa represents Figueroa and said hate crime legislation and statutes exist for a reason.
"Evidence that has been presented to the police department, that this act of violence, both acts of violence, were in fact motivated by a hatred towards the Palestinian national origin or allyship of the Palestinian cause," she said.
"At a time when we have seen hate against the Palestinian community, against the Latinx community, rise and permeate throughout the city and nation, we want to show people that this is something we allow in this city," Chalisa said.
Chalisa said that CPD had been made aware of both incidents. "Perhaps if they had taken action, there would be no second victim, and we are calling on them to remedy the mistakes in hopes there is no third, fourth, fifth victim," she said.
The mural was organized through a local group, The Mural Movement, founded by Delilah Martinez. The Mural Movement was founded in 2020 around the Black Lives Matter movement after police killed George Floyd. The group would paint on the boarded-up windows "to use our voice through art and resistance," Martinez said.
The mural was painted in early May by artist Taqi Spateen, who traveled from Palestine to Chicago to create it.
"When I just arrived here, in this neighborhood, it's all Mexican or Palestinian. I put in my mind, how can we do something suitable for the people, for the streets, and for me as a Palestinian, " Spateen said in a video by The Mural Movement.
The Palestinian man resting in the grass, whose face was vandalized, represents Spateen's grandfather.
"Talk about my grandfather and the grandfathers of the Mexican people. So I painted my grandfather there, which looks like a fighter and I gave him some tools," he said.
The grandfathers are resting, "after a long fight under occupation, it makes you tired, not lazy," Spateen said.
"To make peace, you need to be patient. So there is meaning behind the cactus," he said
"It's living in a desert, without any water, and it's still blooming, that's how we are," Spateen said.
"It's mentally disturbing to know that there's a person that's out here in our community harassing people, attacking people, and even put fire to our mural," Martinez said.
She claims the same person has been harassing community members at the mural since its creation. "It's really disheartening, especially in this community where my family is from, where we are a melting pot of different cultures, and we welcome immigrants," she said.
"We resist with art, culture and using our voices," Martinez said. "The community was part of us creating this," she said.
When asked if the woman had been arrested and if any charges had been filed, police said the investigation remains open.
