Natalie Figueroa wonders why Chicago police officers did not stop her attacker from walking away in Pilsen.
Figueroa says she was riding her bike Friday night when she saw a woman vandalizing a mural near 16th Street and Ashland Avenue. The mural depicts a Mexican man and a Palestinian man resting peacefully in a field.
Figueroa said the woman painted “Israel” in large letters over the mural. The woman burnt off the face of the Palestinian man and spread feces on the wall and sidewalk, she said.
Figueroa said the woman was wearing an EMT uniform and yelled, “You’re welcome. I fixed it.”
The confrontation turned into an argument before the woman assaulted Figueroa, she told reporters in a news conference Wednesday at the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Figueroa and community leaders called on police to arrest the woman and file charges.
“I kept asking her, ‘What is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?’ And she started screaming back at me,” said Figueroa, 42.
The argument turned physical when the woman grabbed a metal hole puncher and hit Figueroa in the face and head, she said. The woman knocked her down and straddled her chest, Figueroa said.
A passersby called the police. When officers arrived, the woman got off her chest and walked away, Figueroa said.
“I kept telling the officers to go after her, but instead they just kept questioning me,” she said. “I begged them. I told them that she had just attacked me, that she vandalized the mural and I got it on video. But they just asked to see the video.”
By the time officers watched the video, the woman was gone.
“Why would they just let her walk away?” said Figueroa, who still wore two black eyes and a bump on her forehead.
The same woman has attacked residents in the neighborhood, speakers said Wednesday.
Last month, a 24-year-old who identified themselves as Laith said the same woman attacked her after she caught her throwing trash near the same mural. Laith said she filed a police report but the woman was not charged.
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) said the same woman tried to intimidate his chief of staff at a community meeting last week.
“When we see discrimination in the difference of response, depending on who is the victim, it’s unacceptable. So I am calling on the Chicago Police Department and every single city official to condemn this act of violence,” Lopez said.
Chicago police on Wednesday said no charges had been filed in Figueroa’s attack. Police added that the offender fled. Police would not comment further about the case.
The mural was painted in May by Taqi Spateen, an artist from Bethlehem, Palestine. It was commissioned by The Mural Movement, which aims to transform communities through art and activism.
Founder Delilah Martinez said the mural represents the solidarity of Mexicans and Palestinians, both of which have struggled.
Much of the alleged attacker’s paint has been removed, but the mural is still not fully restored, Martinez said.
