CLEVELAND — Over the weekend, posters that read "F**k ICE," depicting a cartoon giving the middle finger, started popping up on buildings across Cleveland.
The idea behind the poster comes from rapper and Cleveland native Kid Cudi.
The design is also on hoodies and t-shirts, currently being sold online.
According to Kid Cudi's Instagram, The Big Bro Foundation is donating 100% of net proceeds from the release to organizations supporting individuals and families impacted by immigration enforcement. Those organizations include:
- Defending Our Neighbors
- Black MN Collective
- Haitian Support Center
"Wear it with purpose," Kid Cudi posted on social media.
Jeff Modzelewski said he supports the design and would buy a shirt promoting it.
"I think that's awesome. I think that's great that he's using his art to speak out," he told me on Tuesday. "That's one of the roles of art is to make statements like that, and I love seeing a guy from Cleveland doing it. I think we've got a pretty substantial protest movement going on over this past year, and I'm happy to see people taking action. I'm happy to see people speaking out."
Modzelewski hopes the posters remain up, but understands why they would be removed.
"I understand that the city might take them down. Banksy's art sometimes gets painted over. That's what happens when you engage in that type of art. I understand it might be taken down, and I encourage the folks, whoever's putting them up, I encourage them to keep at it," he said.
On Tuesday, I saw posters near West 25th Street and Chatham Avenue, Broadway Avenue, and West 98th Street and Madison Avenue.
It appears most of the posters are on vacant and dilapidated buildings.
One Clevelander who preferred not to share his name said, regardless of the location, he wants Mayor Justin Bibb to take immediate action.
"I know we have the First Amendment. We can practice that, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do that, and this clearly is the wrong way to do that," he told me.
He said he doesn't appreciate the promotion of hatred towards law enforcement and the vulgarity of the poster.
"This is our home. We're supposed to make Cleveland an inviting place to come to, and this is just not the way to do it," he said.
Modzelewski's response to that is, "I have two kids. One of them is 18. One of them is just about to turn 12, and they've had to do active shooter drills for their entire life in school. I am much more concerned about that than some vulgarity on a poster."
The Clevelander I talked to lives near West 98th Street and Madison Avenue.
On Saturday, he caught a person on camera putting up the posters at that intersection.
He explains to the person who put up the posters that while he understands there's nothing illegal about the material itself, he finds it inappropriate that the location selected for eight of these posters is across the street from a daycare center.
"I understand that," the man who put up the poster tells the Clevelander we talked to in a video. "You're the only one who didn't like it."
"I'm just speechless," the Clevelander says in a video recorded on Saturday.
He told me on Tuesday, "On all our waste collection vehicles, it says 'keep Cleveland clean.' Well, this is not keeping Cleveland clean in my opinion."
I reached out to the City of Cleveland to see if any complaints have been made regarding the posters.
A spokesperson told me a cursory review of 311 and Cleveland police reports was conducted based on the preliminary information I gave regarding the poster.
"It appears that no official reports have been submitted at this point," a city spokesperson told me.
The Clevelander I spoke with on Tuesday said he did call police about the posters at West 98th Street and Madison Avenue over the weekend, and within a half hour of them leaving, he scratched out each of the eight cartoon's middle fingers and the phrase, "F**k ICE."
"I would just hate to see this kind of stuff in my community. I mean, this is just not right," he told me.
I reached out to Kid Cudi on social media, but did not hear back.
According to his Instagram, similar posters have been placed around Washington D.C. as of six days ago.
