Maga is funding murals of a slain Ukrainian refugee. Are they weaponizing her memory?

"Like most blocks in Bushwick, New York, Evergreen Street is blanketed in street art and graffiti. But this month, an incongruous new mural appeared, towering over the street corner. Painted on the side of Formosa, a popular Taiwanese dumpling joint, the image of a blond woman stretches across two stories and an entire apartment block, her right eyebrow fractured by bedroom windows."

"The mural is one of a number that have been painted across the US depicting Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was killed last year while riding the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina. Zarutska was traveling home from her job at a local pizzeria when she was stabbed from behind three times. Her suspected killer, Decarlos Brown Jr, lived with serious mental health issues his mother told the Charlotte Observer that he believed he was being controlled by a chip in his head."

"The killing was captured on a surveillance video which shows Zarutska, wearing the uniform of the pizza shop she worked at, staring at her phone when Brown appears to stab her from behind. The gruesome footage quickly went viral. Conservative circles took up Zarutska's murder as an example of what they consider to be rampant violence in US cities. Leading Maga figures used nakedly racist, dehumanizing language to describe Brown."

A towering mural in Bushwick depicts Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was killed while riding the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina. Zarutska was returning from her job at a local pizzeria when an assailant stabbed her from behind three times, with the attack captured on surveillance video. The suspected killer, Decarlos Brown Jr, had a history of arrests and jail time and reportedly suffered serious mental health issues; his mother said he believed he was controlled by a chip in his head. The footage went viral and was seized upon by conservative voices, including Donald Trump and Elon Musk, to criticize crime coverage and call for harsh punishment.

Read at www.theguardian.com