A South Boston business owner recorded multiple incidents of vandalism to a Pride sign he displayed outside his shop—all caught on his security camera. The owner’s video also captured footage of two passersby stopping to right the sign and try to fix it as best they could. “When there is darkness, there is always light. Those two gentleman captured that,” the shop’s owner told Boston.com.
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On Monday, Micro Plant Studio, a Latinx-owned plant shop on West Broadway, shared surveillance footage showing the separate incidents, which the owner says caused over $500 in damage.
“It was painful,” said owner Julio Cesar Roman by phone on Tuesday, upon seeing the video footage of the men damaging the sign. “I did cry.”
He never expected something like this to happen. At first, Roman said, he thought it was the wind that knocked the sign over. But the videos proved otherwise.
The first incident shows a man doubling back to kick the sign that reads, “First Latinx Plant Store in New England: Southie Pride.”
A later video shows another group passing by and then stopping to film themselves messing with the custom-made sign, which was made out of PVC on a weighted-down frame. Another person then walked by and knocked over the damaged sign.
The first man damaged the sign, and then those that followed saw it broken and continued to do harm to it, Roman explained.
“It was a ripple effect,” said Roman. “You can create love or you can create hate.”
The very last video, from early Sunday morning, shows two men stopping to stand the sign back up and attempt to put it back together.
“When there is darkness there is always light,” said Roman. “Those two gentlemen captured that.”
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