The City of Portland doesn’t plan to remove a massive work of graffiti depicting Maine Gov. Paul LePage wearing full Ku Klux Klan garb and labeling him a “racist, homophobe, moron.”
The work is part of another piece covering the entire 100-foot wall along the city’s Eastern Promenade, which urges viewers to “dump LePage” in 6-foot-tall letters, the Portland Press Herald reported Tuesday.
But city officials are in no hurry to get rid of the depiction of the governor. After persistent issues with vandalization on the wall, the Portland Water District turned it into a public canvas for street art more than a decade ago, according to the paper.
Portland city spokeswoman Jessica Grondin told the Herald that officials only remove graffiti if it contains hate speech aimed at a specific group.
“From the police point of view, it’s a matter of free speech and there’s nothing they can do about it,” she said.
The controversial governor recently grabbed national headlines for melting down in an unhinged, expletive-riddled voicemail he left for a state lawmaker he believed had called him “racist.”
LePage’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday afternoon.
