A Washington woman was arrested after allegedly vandalizing a waterfront memorial dedicated to fishermen, apparently after confusing part of the statue’s mooring rope for a noose.
Cara Munoz, 34, filmed herself Monday afternoon at Zuanich Point Park in Bellingham, where city crews were removing spray paint from the “Safe Return” memorial, a bronze statue depicting a fisherman holding a mooring line.
In the video, Munoz, who lists she/they pronouns on Instagram, confronted workers as they cleaned the monument honoring local fishermen who died or vanished at sea.
Munoz repeatedly insisted the rope on the statue was actually a noose, suggesting the memorial located less than 90 miles north of Seattle was concealing a symbol tied to white supremacy.
As she moved closer to the bronze figure and zoomed in on the rope, she accused people in the area of “protecting nooses,” continuing to frame the mooring line as something far more sinister.
The city workers largely stayed silent as Munoz moved between them with her camera, attempting to draw a response while they focused on removing the graffiti from the Bellingham memorial.
At one point, Munoz appeared to mock an explanation about the statue’s nautical design, noting sarcastically that because an anchor was shown, the rope was being treated as something other than what she believed it to be.
“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 showed up, at which point Munoz was inside her vehicle and refused to leave. When they tried to arrest her for second-degree malicious mischief, she spat at officers and was placed in a spit hood, a witness told PNW Daily.
Jail records show Munoz was booked on allegations of second-degree malicious mischief, third-degree assault and resisting lawful arrest.
Malicious mischief is a category of crime that includes vandalism. However, cops haven’t catagorically said if Munoz was the person who first defaced the statue, which remains under investigation.
She was released on her own recognizance Tuesday afternoon.
