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Pro-Trump Slogans “Sabotage” Beastie Boy Memorial

Last weekend Adam Yauch Park, a playground in Brooklyn Heights dedicated to late Beastie Boys member Adam “MCA” Yauch, was vandalised with swastikas and pro-Trump slogans. Adam Yauch passed away in 2012 from cancer of the parotid gland, and in […]

Last weekend Adam Yauch Park, a playground in Brooklyn Heights dedicated to late Beastie Boys member Adam “MCA” Yauch, was vandalised with swastikas and pro-Trump slogans.

What has the world come to? Source

Adam Yauch passed away in 2012 from cancer of the parotid gland, and in 2013 Palmetto Park was renamed after Yauch on the one-year anniversary of his death.

Hundreds of New Yorkers rallied within the park holding signs with Beastie Boy-inspired lyrics such as “We Gotta Fight for Our Rights” and “No Sleep ‘Til Not Hate Brooklyn”.

Fellow Beastie Boy, Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz, addressed the crowd with the same vigour:

We’re all here today because we’re thinking the same thing: Painting swastikas on a children’s playground is a messed-up thing to do,” he said. “And for many of us, it has special meaning, because this park is named for Adam Yauch, who was my friend and bandmate for over 30 years, but he was also someone who taught nonviolence in his music, in his life, to all of us and to me.

What’s even more poignant about the vandalism is that Adam Yauch was born into a Jewish family, making the defacing a premeditated attack. Although in his later life, Yauch practised Buddhism, organising the Tibetan Freedom Concert that supported the cause for Tibetan independence.

Donald Trump’s campaign for president was heavily focused on accusing minorities and foreigners for America’s high crime rates and unemployment. After his surprising win to become president-elect, his racist and violent rhetoric has been legitimised for others to attack minorities too.

Adam Yauch park has since been cleaned of the graffiti, but the messages left on the memorial highlight the xenophobic underbelly Trump has encouraged in America.