Austin City Hall was found vandalized early Tuesday with red paint and messages about socialism and imperialism.
The front doors were doused with red paint and the stairs outside of the building were spray painted with a message: “U.S. imperialism is the virus” and “socialist revolution is the cure!” A hammer and sickle also was spray-painted onto a side of the building.
An on-duty Austin police officer noticed the graffiti around 6:45 a.m. No suspects have been identified, but police are asking for help identifying three people caught on surveillance video.
The men in the video are dressed in pants and jackets with hoods. One is carrying a plastic H-E-B grocery bag as they pass by Austin Java coffee shop.
Although police don’t think any witnesses were at the scene, anyone with more information about the incident can call police detectives at 512-974-8519.
“At this time, this is the only information we have to provide,” police said.
The messages and imagery drawn onto City Hall this week are similar to other graffiti that has been popping up around town in at least the past month.
On April 2, the same message about “U.S. imperialism is the virus” and “socialist revolution is the cure!” was spotted on a fence on South Pleasant Valley Road.
A hammer and sickle was seen April 21 on a closed fast-food restaurant on East Oltorf Street with a message that said: “They don’t pay, we don’t pay!” The restaurant had another message that said “Combat May 1 (and) resist.”
May 1 is International Workers Day, which is a celebration of the working class.
In recent years, similar red graffiti employing a hammer and sickle image has appeared on the University of Texas campus.
Littlefield Fountain on the university’s South Mall was tagged in March 2018 with a message that said: “This is the blood of survivors that UT ignores,” along with a drawing of a hammer and sickle.
Red spray paint reading, “Careful! UT Keeps abusers on staff!” and “Watch your back Richard,” followed by the hammer and sickle symbol was found outside the School of Pharmacy building in February 2018.
The graffiti targeted UT professor Richard Morrisett, who pleaded guilty in a domestic abuse case.
Earlier this year in February, then-Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg’s Austin campaign office was vandalized, police said, according to KVUE-TV. The office was spray painted with a red hammer and sickle and a message that said, “Don’t vote.”
Last month, City Hall experienced a different kind of vandalism. A statue of a grackle wearing a luchador mask, which was outside the building as an art installation titled “Ganador,” was torched and burned to the ground. Rodney Lynn Cook, 67, was arrested in connection with the act and charged with criminal mischief.
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