BENNINGTON — Protesters disrupted an event Sunday evening where people gathered to paint a Black Lives Matter mural. They again blocked efforts to finish it Monday.
Tensions ran high at the festival-style gathering, which was designed to be family-friendly, with live music and free snacks during the painting work. At one point, a crowd of painters joined hands around the mural to block protesters who did not agree with the Black Lives Matter message.
Police estimated that 125 to 150 people attended in total; about two-thirds attended to support the mural, while a third came to protest.
Police arrested four people, including self-proclaimed white nationalist Max Misch, on charges of disorderly conduct — tampering with painted portions of the mural, or for pushing and shoving. Police did not arrest people for protesting the mural or occupying the space.
Sunday’s event was scheduled to end at 7 p.m., and organizers said that, because paint was spilled during an argument, they didn’t have enough paint to finish the mural. Coordinators planned to finish it Monday morning, but protesters again occupied the mural. One carried a rifle, said Bennington Police Chief Paul Doucette.
The mural, designed by local artists, reads “Black Lives Matter,” with the “I” shaped like the Bennington monument. The letters sit on top of the Green Mountains. Artist Cynthia Taylor said she and the two other artists, Beth Newman and MaryJane Sarvis, had consulted with people of color within the community about the project.
“We were inspired by the Hollywood sign, but we gave it a specific Bennington touch by adding the monument where the ‘I’ is,” Newman said.
Bennington Selectboard members approved the mural in late July, but some protesters wanted the decision brought to a townwide vote.
“The request that came to us, we just felt it was really consistent with Bennington values, and felt it was important to pass it right away,” said selectboard chair Donald Campbell. “It’s a representative government.”
Mary Gerisch, a Bennington resident and co-chair of the statewide advocacy group Rights and Democracy, said she arrived Sunday at 1 p.m. to find several protesters occupying the space in front of the town offices, where she and artists would soon outline the mural.
The team began drawing the letters in chalk at 3 p.m. Gerisch said she had a polite encounter with a protester who moved so that she could continue drawing.
“At first I thought, everyone’s going to be reasonable about this,” she said.
By 4:30 p.m., a group of several anti-BLM protesters had gathered in front of the police department, across the street from the mural, and several protesters sat on the mural’s first several letters, blocking painters from the “B” and “L” in “Black.” A group of people from both sides of the conflict surrounded them, and police darted in and out of the crowd when conflict arose.
“We tried to intervene, and we tried not to make arrests, but then it got to the point where it was time,” said Doucette, the police chief.
When a woman poured the contents of her water bottle onto the mural, police handcuffed her and walked her into the police department, prompting applause from some of the crowd.
“She took the water and sprayed it at people,” Doucette said. “That’s threatening behavior. We don’t know what’s in that water bottle, and paint’s expensive.”
Another protester, Max Misch, engaged in a verbal altercation with a painter that caused paint to spill, Doucette said. Misch then walked through the mural with wet paint on his shoes. His arrest also produced cheers.
“That’s disorderly behavior. That’s tumultuous behavior. You’re ruining a mural that people worked hard to paint,” Doucette said.
Bennington police made two other arrests, Doucette said, for pushing and shoving. He added that, based on comments on social media leading up to the event, he expected it would be contentious. Eleven officers were on hand.
While police allowed acts of civil disobedience, such as blocking the painters’ work, they did not allow protesters to deface the mural. The department and the town set up video cameras that will monitor the mural around the clock.
Meanwhile, musical acts carried on. A Manchester-based hip-hop group, The Horsemen, featured local rap artists whose content focused on social justice.
“We’re here to let Bennington, as well as New England, know that even though this might seem like a tourist, predominantly white town, there is culture here,” said Jason Dansby, who also goes by Flex 45. “Southern Vermont hip-hop’s got something to say.”
At around 6:45 p.m., members of The Horsemen were leading a group of dancing residents in “Cha Cha Slide.”
Despite the arrests and conflict, Gerisch said she thought the event had gone well.
“I’m sorry that Bennington — that we had to have the arrests, because that’s really too bad,” she said. “But I will say that the existence of the protest, and the behavior of the people attending it, is exactly the reason we needed this mural in Bennington.”
Shawn Pratt, a local social justice organizer, said that, despite the arrests, he felt relieved that that situation stayed largely nonviolent.
“As tense as this situation is, you would think there’d be a lot more going on, but for the most part, I think it’s going pretty good in terms of people not getting hurt,” he said. “People are coming together trying to do something, trying to do music, trying to get people out in the open.”
Izaiah, who chose to give only his first name, watched and waited at the event’s end, paint in hand, as demonstrators occupied the area he was trying to paint. Izaiah said he grew up in Bennington, and he has experienced racism in the town before.
“It’s just really sickening to be here. Speaking as a Black person who lives here,” he said, “I cannot live here. It’s just insane that we have to deal with this still.”
