Peter Schorsch
So, Tampa, what are you going to do about that eye sore of a street mural in front of the police headquarters?
Seriously, y’all can probably see it from your office window, staring back at you in all of its black, white and blue hideousness, mocking you with all of its verbal ambiguity.
Bock the Blup? Bork the Bluf?
If pro-cop organizers wanted to honor their beloved men and women in blue, you’d think they could have taken the time to come up with a design that didn’t look like a dog’s breakfast.
I suppose it’s not entirely your fault, Tampa employees and Mayor Jane Castor’s administration. After all, the apparently talent-lacking “artists” didn’t even bother waiting for their permit to be approved.
But what are you going to do to get rid of this literal stain on the road?
As of right now, it looks like not much. Castor offered a statement condemning the group painting the mural without the proper permit, but didn’t say whether anything would be done about it.
“Any tribute to honor their service is welcome. It’s unfortunate they didn’t see the permitting process through so that our community could participate in showing their appreciation for the brave men and women that service our residents every day,” she said.
Ignore for a second the political debate behind the ”Back the Blue” movement. There are plenty of reasons why such a street mural basically undoes the Black Lives Matter one so many celebrated the administration for approving. (I know, I know, not everyone.)
Let’s also ignore the street mural rules this catastrophe breaks by covering street markings critical to public safety on roads.
Let’s just focus on how absolutely ugly this thing is.
Comments on the Facebook post promoting it came with a healthy dose of WTF.
Some were simple in their critique.
“Ew.”
“Cringe.”
“Yuck.”
“This looks ugly.”
Others resorted to the barf emoji to express their disapproval.
One commenter wrote that it “looks like it was done by a blind chimpanzee.”
It hasn’t yet, but I imagine this will go down in the ranks of “WTF Florida?” headlines. I can already see the John Oliver skit next weekend as an angsty Brit mocks the mural by coming up with some sort of creative interpretation of what “Blup” even means.
Fun fact: A Blup is any animal other than a cat or dog that has its tongue stuck out for an extended period of time.
Politics aside, I’m sure that’s a movement we can all get behind.
Maybe as you contemplate what to do about the train wreck of a mural, you’ll consider an image of an Alpaca sticking its tongue out as an alternative. Perhaps you could conjure the blind chimpanzee allegedly behind this atrocity.
In the meantime, we’ll be waiting to see how viral this thing goes. There’s already a twitter page in which user T. Greg Doucette has given himself the middle name “Boek the Blup” and changed his cover photo to an aerial shot of the aesthetic equivalent of a squished Smurf.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go peruse internet images of animals blupping to replace the image this mural left on the back of my eyelids.
15 comments
Tjb
August 3, 2020 at 2:50 pm
No permit? If this is true, trump needs to send the DHS troops in to regain law and order. We can not allow public property to be defaced.
EyesWideOpen
August 3, 2020 at 4:05 pm
How ironic that the painting of this mural involved the commission of multiple crimes. The organizer, who is a resident of Pasco County not Tampa, and those who helped her, need to be criminally charged and billed for the cost of removing their vandalism of our community’s street.
Kirstan
August 3, 2020 at 6:17 pm
You are joking right?
jimmy
August 3, 2020 at 5:14 pm
It looks great I don’t know what this punk-ass writer’s talkin about and the people who did it did not Loot and burn any businesses in the area like BLM Punk
Michael
August 3, 2020 at 6:02 pm
I love it. I used visiting it with my kids and grandkids to explain to them the value of living in a country where we have the rule of law protecting our rights and law enforcement upholding those laws. They really got it. Mine won’t grow up hating their country or the police.
Kristan
August 3, 2020 at 6:19 pm
Peter you are pathetic. Go get a real job you peice of shit.
Back the Blue! If not FUCK YOU!
Do better
August 4, 2020 at 7:46 am
I wonder what the perpetrators of this vandalism would think if we went to their homes and painted on their streets without permission? Why is someone from Pasco coming to Tampa to vandalize? Go paint at the Pasco Sheriff’s office or the Dade City PD headquarters. I’m sure the ultra diverse demographics of Pasco county would appreciate it.
Douglas
August 4, 2020 at 8:13 am
You forgot the meaningful news though, my guy
Ky
August 4, 2020 at 2:11 pm
Had to work hard to see “Block the Blup”. I bet if it was “Black Lives Matter” then it would be absolutely astounding with no flaws. Hate the laws, don’t hate the enforcers… I hate the F the police trend, it’s such a waste of time and life
H T
August 5, 2020 at 9:54 am
It doesn’t matter what you think it appears to say. The message is there. We all know what the intention was. If BLM doesn’t have to get permits to paint their murals (and they didn’t), then neither should they. #backtheblue I stand with my amazing law enforcement friends and their families.
Gee P
August 6, 2020 at 7:06 am
Is this a real news organization or did a few high schoolers get bored? Asking for a friend
Kevin
August 6, 2020 at 3:27 pm
It means FUCK THE BLUE
Mary Beth Riordan
August 16, 2020 at 4:37 am
On behalf of all the llamas out there, the word is not blup, it’s blep. But, if it helps, boek is the Afrikaans word for book. I’m sure there’s an apartheid reference somewhere in there.
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