Press Release: Occupy Pensacola does not condone the use of graffiti on local businesses as those are considered by the movement to be ill targeted acts of vandalism.
Recently someone spray-painted “99%†on the bust of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When we were informed of this, a crew immediately assembled to try and clean the paint off of the back of the bust, and members of that crew called the police to file a report.
A number of people from Occupy were invited to the Handle Bar to ask the punk rock group Ted Leo to play for us at our occupation. It is a tradition of the Handle Bar to tag the walls of the establishment with radical insignias and slogans. Occupy Pensacola abided by the tradition, but later found that some may have gone too far by tagging the sidewalk and outside areas. We are now assembling a crew to clean up the excess paint, and we do sincerely apologize.
Though we understand the frustration behind using graffiti as a direct, non-violent action, we at Occupy Pensacola would like to reiterate that we do not condone the use of graffiti on local businesses, and ask that any more instances of graffiti that may seem to speak for or resemble the 99% be reported to us so that we can remedy the problem.