Graffiti of human silhouettes hanging from frayed ropes with tilted necks has been reported on several buildings across Eureka, police said.
Eureka Police Chief Brian Stephens called the images, reported Friday morning, “disturbing” and said officers are investigating the tags as felony vandalism. The painted bodies each held a flower and appeared to be dressed in suits in at least four locations across the city, according to photos in the Eureka Police Department’s social media statement, which generated debate over whether the figures constitute art or vandalism.
“One person’s felony vandalism is another person’s expressionist art,” one commenter said on the police’s social media statement, drawing more 1,000 likes.
Police said the graffiti does not appear to target any specific group or race, but that the depiction of violence is not acceptable.
“The Death of Greed” was scrawled next to graffiti of a body hanging between two flowers on a building housing a massage shop. (Eureka Police Department)
At one location outside a massage shop, “The Death of Greed” was scrawled next to a body hanging between two flowers sprouting from the ground, according to a photo posted by police.
Another wall featured six suspended forms and two bodies falling from snapped ropes. “This was never their land to extract from,” was tagged underneath.
Several comments interpreted the line as a reference to the area’s Indigenous tribes. The Wiyot people were the native inhabitants of Eureka before western migration led to conflict and disease that devastated the native population.
“The truth hurts and is messy,” one commenter said. “Just like killing all the natives here on this land was.”
“This was never their land to extract from,” reads a message scrawled next to images of hanging bodies on one Eureka building. (Eureka Police Department)
Other commenters saw the tags as a protest against violence.
“I don’t agree with the idea of tagging other people’s property,” another commenter said. “But the message is clear, people are fed up with societal injustices and protesting peacefully via artwork.”
