A public mural in Portland that first depicted Gov. Paul LePage as a KKK grand wizard — and later with Mickey Mouse ears — is at the center of a debate.
Some city officials want the mural, which is on a public building, to be painted over, but others point to the history of the space as a canvas for free expression.
The mural first came to light Tuesday, on a hundred-foot-long wall by a walking path that snakes between the city’s water treatment plant and Casco Bay. “Dump LePage,” it said in tall letters, accompanied by a portrait of the governor clad in Klansman’s garb, and describing him as a “racist” and “homophobe.”
Mayor Ethan Strimling, who has been trying to repair the city’s frayed relations with LePage, said the mural should come down, as did many locals. Even those who, like Strimling, are condemning LePage for his comments on race and his curse-laden voicemail he recently left for a lawmaker.
But overnight, television station WCSH documented a kind of competition between people trying to whitewash the mural and those trying to keep it intact. By Wednesday, LePage’s Klan robes were gone, replaced by a pair of Mickey Mouse ears.
“Yeah. I’m OK with where it’s at now,” Strimling says. “Political speech is very important, political art is very important in our community and expression of that — when you trivialize the KKK the way it was depicting the Grand Wizard, that to me was the issue that went too far.”
The mural has now become a bit of a local attraction. Mark Rodrigue of Poland and a friend made their way down to Portland’s East End to check it out.
“The statement, I think it’s an expression of how a lot of people feel right now, and as indelicate as it is I think it expresses that,” he says.
“We are concerned about the negativity surrounding our property,” says Michele Clements, a spokesperson for the Portland Water District, which owns the wall.
She says terms such as racist and homophobe are derogatory.
“And our general manager feels the current use of the graffiti wall is inappropriate. And we are exploring with the city to see what steps can be taken, and our options,” she says.
It’s unclear just what those might be. Although the water district owns the wall, it has been in use as a public canvas for 15 years, ever since then Police Chief Michael Chitwood made a verbal agreement with the district to allow graffiti and other artists free rein there.
Zachary Hayden, legal director for the ACLU of Maine, says when governments establish public forums, the courts frown on attempts to limit their use, regardless of the content.
“You’re not allowed to make a threat against somebody in a way that causes them to fear imminent bodily harm. But in terms of being offensive and saying things that are offensive, that’s generally permitted under our First Amendment,” he says. “The courts and our constitution say that in such a situation, the proper remedy is disagreement — more speech, rather than enforced silence.”
A spokesperson for the city says there are no plans to paint the mural over.
