A Washington woman was arrested for defacing a memorial statue dedicated to fishermen, mistaking its mooring rope for a noose.
Cara Munoz, 34, filmed herself confronting city workers who were removing spray paint from the “Safe Return” memorial at Zuanich Point Park in Bellingham. The statue depicts a bronze fisherman holding a mooring line.
Munoz, who identifies with she/they pronouns on Instagram, angrily criticized the workers as they cleaned graffiti from the monument honoring local fishermen who have died or disappeared.
“Hmmm, can we actually see what’s hiding behind this guy? You sure f–king can’t, nope! You can’t because it’s a noose that they are hiding!” she says, apparently genuinely believing the statue less than 90 miles north of Seattle is paying homage to white supremacy.
“Hmm, we really like to protect nooses here, apparently. Isn’t that interesting?” she says as she approaches the statue, zooming in on the mooring line and claiming it’s a noose.
The workers ignored her persistent provocations as she moved between them, attempting to incite a reaction by shoving the camera in their faces.
“There’s an anchor there, so it’s connected, therefore it’s not what it is,” Munoz said sarcastically to a worker, who didn’t engage with her.
“Hi! Are you gonna do anything about the noose hanging above your head?” she said to another worker who looked like he wanted nothing to do with her deranged spectacle.
“This is a representation of the f–king slick tricks people will go to hide white supremacy. That’s a noose. That is a f–king noose by definition. That is a hate symbol by definition,” she said at the end of the clip, which has since been deleted from her social media.
Police eventually arrived, finding Munoz inside her vehicle, refusing to exit. When they attempted to arrest her for second-degree malicious mischief, she allegedly spat at the officers, leading to her being placed in a spit hood, according to a witness cited by PNW Daily.
Jail records indicate Munoz was charged with second-degree malicious mischief, third-degree assault, and resisting lawful arrest.
While malicious mischief encompasses acts like vandalism, authorities have not confirmed if Munoz was responsible for initially defacing the statue, an investigation that remains ongoing.
She was released on her own recognizance Tuesday afternoon.
