New Jersey Children's 'Make America Love Again' Mural Allegedly Vandalized By 79-Year-Old Man
MONTCLAIR, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Children in Upper Montclair, New Jersey spread a positive message by painting a mural after the presidential election, but it was vandalized allegedly by a 79-year-old man.
Last week, the grade school children painted a colorful "Make America Love Again" mural, complete with their small hand prints, CBS2's Alice Gainer reported.
"It was a symbol of love for the community," Hakika DuBose, the owner of Power Stretch Studios, said.
It was immediately vandalized.
"We've had to repaint it six times," DuBose said.
Her studio on Bellevue Avenue had a fire last year and as it rebuilds, someone took it upon themselves to scrawl political graffiti on the boarded-up windows. So she got the idea to get the kids together to create something positive to cover it up.
The words "Make America Great Again" and "Suck it up buttercup" were then scrawled over the kids' work.
Most recently, the words "Leave alone, I was here first" and "Get over it crybabies" appeared.
Maria Heritier tried to cover up the vandalism with flyers about a community march. DuBose said she hopes this is the last time they'll have to repaint.
She staked out the area at 4 a.m. Friday and caught the culprits in action.
"We weren't expecting two 80-year-olds," she said.
An elderly couple spent just a couple of minutes drawing over the mural.
"The woman looked at me in my face and said, 'we're still going to make America great again," DuBose said.
The man with the marker, 79-year-old Anthony Dinapoli, was issued a complaint for defacing public property.
A women who identified herself as Dinapoli's wife told Gainer this was none of her business and "no, they weren't sorry."
"You think kids, or you don't think that somebody in their senior years would do something so immature, you know something so adolescent," Montclair resident George Oliphant said.
"I would think it was shocking if 15-year-olds did it, but much less somebody who is of age to understand what they're doing," Gail Yammer, of Clifton, said.
She said she declined to have the couple arrested on the spot with the hope that in doing so they will learn a lesson of compassion and hopefully love.
