The former home of rock legend Elvis Presley was vandalized overnight with slogans that include “Defund The Police,” “No Justice No Peace,” and “Black Lives Matter.”
Vandals on Monday night used blue, green, orange, and black colored graffiti to spray the messages on the front-walls of Graceland mansion, which is now a popular destination for tourists visiting Memphis, Tennessee, the Commercial Appeal reported.
Many of the anti-police slogans allegedly sprayed by Black Lives Matter activists cover the tributes written by fans who visited the mansion since it was officially declared a museum in 1982.
Presley’s Aug. 16, 1977 death was remembered last month by fans all over the world. The walls around Presley’s Graceland estate have thousands of hand-written tributes from fans who over the years visited the home—where Presley lived for 20 years.
People on social media were upset after photos and reports revealed that a recent demonstration in the city ended with vandalism on the wall outside the estate.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee wrote on Twitter: “They’ve done it now! These anarchist goons have defaced Graceland!” He added, “where I come from you don’t mess with Elvis!”
Huckabee tagged President Donald Trump in his post, asking him to deploy the National Guard in the city and “round up these criminals!”
Tennessee State Rep. Antonio Parkinson also shared his view on the incident in a now-deleted Facebook post after people were outraged by the post.
“What’s the real issue here? Every visitor that has come to Graceland has written on that wall and there were no complaints. So, really, it’s WHAT was written, not the fact that it was written, right?” he wrote.
Many people commented on the post, with one person telling Parkinson that “fans of Elvis write their names on the wall as a mark of respect to Elvis,” adding that he thinks the vandalism is “disgusting.”
A crew of cleaners reportedly got to work Tuesday morning and started to remove the graffiti with power-wash equipment, FOX 13 reporter Shelia O’Connor wrote on Twitter, adding pictures of the sprayed slogans and cleaners at the scene.
“Crews are cleaning up after someone spray painted the walls of Graceland with messages like ‘Defund MPD’ ‘Arrest Breonna Taylor’s murderers’ and ‘BLM’ and more,” she wrote.
Besides Presley’s iconic mansion, the vandals also targeted the Levitt Shell concert venue in Overton Park with messages that said, “EAT THE RICH,” “Defund MPD [Memphis Police Department],” “ABOLISH ICE,” among many other slogans that are being used in the recent uproar over alleged racism and police brutality in the United States.
The Levitt Shell was built by the City of Memphis in 1936 and is an open-air amphitheater where the “King of Rock and Roll” gave his first paid concert in July 1954.
Memphis police said they are investigating the incident.
