HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (FOX 2) - On Juneteenth the community came together in Highland Park to see a mural with a heartbreaking message, honoring black lives lost lives lost to police brutality.
"This to me is screaming out to stop, just leave us alone it's not hunting season on black people," said artist Sydney James. "It's really that simple."
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Malice Green mural and names of other police brutality victims unveiled in Highland Park
On Juneteenth the community came together in Highland Park to see a mural with a heartbreaking message, honoring black lives lost lives lost to police brutality.
A picture of Malice Green, the black man beaten to death by white Detroit police officers in 1992 holds a list of names of others who shared his fate. James and her team completed it, in just five days.
"Painting all of these names, didn't even put a dent in the list of so many names of black people," James said. "Young, old, queer, straight, whatever, being murdered by people who are supposed to protect and serve us. It's painful, it's heartbreaking."
The mural on Hamilton near Puritan replaces another demolished in Detroit in 2013. The artist who painted the original mural on Warren and 23rd joined Sydney James at the unveiling.
"This is a huge honor - for her to be inspired by the history of Malice Green and also by the current events that's happening to our people nowadays the same thing being duplicated over and over again," said Bennie James, Jr.
"I just wanted to come out here and pay tribute to the lives taken brutally from this world from racism police brutality the list goes on and on," said Dexter Powell.
People from all walks of life and even Green's family, placed flowers and took pictures by the new mural. For them this is far more than just a painting, it is a teaching moment and a way to honor the black lives lost to police brutality.