The words “Black Lives Matter” that were written outside the Governor’s Mansion following the death of George Floyd have been covered.
A social media post shared Friday afternoon showed what appeared to be state employees working to remove the letters that were scrawled along Calhoun Avenue in the wake of the death of the Minnesota man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police after an officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes.
Maintenance on Calhoun Avenue is normally handled by City and Borough of Juneau. However, CBJ Transit Superintendent Ed Foster told the Empire he had been contacted by someone at the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities and told state employees would be covering over the writing.
When contacted, Bill Campbell, maintenance specialist for the state’s Division of Public Facilities declined to comment.
The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, City and Borough of Juneau and the governor’s office all could not immediately be reached for comment late Friday afternoon.
https://twitter.com/SegallJnuEmpire/status/1269308126651547649
The writing first appeared the morning of June 6.
Contact reporter Peter Segall at psegall@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SegallJnoEmpire.