Police officers appeal decision throwing out their suit over Black Lives Matter street mural

BY STEPHANIE LAM
Daily Post Correspondent

An attorney representing six Palo Alto police officers claims the city disregarded racist themes against the white and non-African-American officers when it allowed an artist to paint a Black Lives Matter mural on Hamilton Avenue in front of City Hall.

Meanwhile, attorneys for the city say the mural was never intended to make police officers feel uncomfortable and instead was supposed to promote peace.

These arguments were presented in a San Jose courtroom on March 5 before the state appellate court as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the city, which was filed in 2021 by the six officers over a mural painted in 2020. City Council approved of the mural in response to national protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The mural featured images in each letter of the phrase Black Lives Matter, including a depiction of Assata Shakur, a black woman who was convicted in 1977 for the murder of white New Jersey State Trooper. She later escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba. She died there in September 2025.

Six officers who were employed by the city at the time — Eric Figueroa, Michael Foley, Robert Parham, Julie Tannock, David Ferreira and Chris Moore — complained the mural resulted in discrimination, harassment and retaliation against non-African- American police officers.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Evette Pennypacker dismissed their lawsuit in July 2024, saying the mural wasn’t directed at the police officers and didn’t interfere with their work. The officers appealed in November 2024.

In court on March 5, Judge Mary Greenwood asked Richard Kellner, an attorney representing the six officers, if he believed someone who is not one of the officers could view the mural without seeing racist undertones towards those who are white or non African-American.

Kellner said the six officers have a “unique” background that the city knows about and when the officers said the mural was offensive to them on the basis of race, the city still kept the mural up.

But Rahi Azizi, an attorney representing Palo Alto, said the peaceful meaning of the mural was “plain and simple.” Azizi also claims that the officers assumed the illustration, which is of an African American woman in afro hairstyle, was Shakur but had no evidence. 

Azizi said nothing in the mural evidences racial incidence or racism.

“It’s a statement of antiracism,” he said. 

In 2021 court documents, Palo Alto Public Art Director Elise DeMarzo said she didn’t know who Assata Shakur was when she approved the controversial figure’s inclusion in the mural. The proposed sketch, which was created by Oakland-based artist Cece Carpio, included a depiction of a woman with an afro hairstyle, and the words, “We must love each other and support each other.”

The mural was removed by Palo Alto in November 2020, and the city has spent more than $300,000 defending itself against the suit. No word on when the appeals court will make its ruling.

The city opted to fund a residency program that pays local artists to create public art focused on social justice and equity.