SANTA CRUZ — The Santa Cruz Police Department has identified 49-year-old Santa Cruz County resident Taj Blum as the scooter-riding, paint-dumping vandal who defaced the “Black Lives Matter” mural in front of Santa Cruz City Hall over the summer. Blum was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism Tuesday but police are not considering the act a hate crime.
“The elements for a hate crime are very specific,” said Santa Cruz Police Chief Bernie Escalante on Tuesday. “Through the extensive investigation, we were not able to locate any evidence that it was a hate crime.”
Just over a month after the community gathered to restore a street art project with the help of convicted vandals, the downtown Black Lives Matter mural was defaced by Santa Cruz County resident Taj Blum, who was arrested Tuesday. (City of Santa Cruz — Contributed)
According to a statement from the city, on July 29, 2023, the Santa Cruz Police Department received a report of vandalism to the “Black Lives Matter” mural painting outside of City Hall at 800 Center St., in Santa Cruz, which consisted of blue paint splattered across the artwork. Investigators were called in and obtained video of Blum, who is seen on a scooter throwing paint on the mural.
“At this point, it’s a bit unclear what the motivation was,” said Escalante. “I know that there’s been conversations, mostly on social media, about people that disagree with the location of the mural or the size of the mural. Some feel it should be on a wall somewhere. Everybody has a right to their opinion and maybe there was something about the mural itself that they disagreed with but the motivation for the act didn’t have anything to do with hatred toward people of color.”
With the video evidence and assistance from community members, investigators identified a possible vehicle and person of interest and continued to work the case by serving multiple search warrants, interviewing witnesses, and conducting forensic examinations, according to the statement. After identifying Blum as the vandal, investigators then worked with the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office to determine whether the act could be considered a hate crime.”
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“That’s what took so long,” said Escalante. “We had served a search warrant at the suspect’s residence and collected a number of electronic devices and all of those had to be diligently searched through to determine whether this met the elements of a hate crime or not.”
Investigators were able to obtain enough evidence to arrest Blum for the felony vandalism. Blum, who does not have a criminal history, and resides in the Santa Cruz Mountains, was taken into custody without incident Tuesday. He remained held in lieu of $5,000 bail in the Santa Cruz County Jail on Tuesday afternoon on suspicion of felony vandalism.
“We are done with the investigation at this point,” said Escalante. “We now turn it over to the District Attorney’s Office and they have the authority to add or take away charges.”
