On June 26th, volunteers from Erie Equal painted a mural along South Park Row.

Beginning on June 27th, the City started removing the paint and chalk.

“No one spoke to City Hall concerning the mural. This building is not a place to express political views with painting,” said Mayor Joe Schember, (D) City of Erie.

The mural said “defund the police, invest in the community.” However, this morning city officials started to remove the mural.

The city bought a special chemical to remove the mural. One of the founders of the Erie Equal group said that the products used to make the mural were not permanent.

“It was strictly made out of chalk and mop and glow. We really strive to ensure we didn’t use anything permanent as we didn’t want to deface any public property or get ourselves into any legal trouble,” said Andrey Rosado, Co-Founder of Erie Equal.

The founders of the group also said that creating the mural was intended to be a community event that would bring people together as well as attention to the national call for police reform.