Rhode Island State Rep. David Morales (D-District 7) said that a mural honoring slain 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska “does not reflect” the “values” of Providence. The city’s mayor, Brett Smiley (D), meanwhile, agrees, saying the mural is “divisive and does not represent Providence.”
“We want to make sure that every community member that calls Providence home feels safe,” Morales — a State Rep. in the Rhode Island House of Representatives for the 7th district — said in a recent interview.
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“And we can both agree that this mural behind us does not reflect Providence’s values, nor does it reflect the creativity that we want to see in our city,” the Democrat State Representative added.
Morales went on to bizarrely claim that “a right-wing movement” has been “exploiting the death of the refugee for the purposes of trying to spread division.”
Notably, Morales provided his remarks while standing before a mural depicting Iryna Zarutska, whose horrific murder last summer on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, was caught on video and later circulated on social media in September 2025.
While leftists oftentimes virtue signal self-righteousness regarding the war in Ukraine, they have largely ignored Zarutska after noticing that the outrage over the 23-year-old’s murder was strong among conservatives, who cited Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies as the catalyst for the senseless killing.
Authorities have since charged Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr. — a repeat offender who had been arrested more than a dozen times and served five years in prison before the fatal train stabbing — with first degree murder.
However, not all Democrats played partisan politics in reaction to Zarutska’s murder.
As Breitbart News reported last fall, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein (D) signed “Iryna’s Law” — a bill that prohibits cashless bail for some violent crimes and most repeat offenders — but noted that he had reservations about some aspects of the new legislation.
Nonetheless, leftists apparently still don’t want to look at murals honoring Zarutska. Therefore, the painting being worked on in Providence has been the subject of contentious talks in the city “for days,” according to a report by NBC 10 WJAR.
Ultimately, the decision was made to have the mural removed from the side of The Dark Lady — a gay nightclub in downtown Providence — whose owners have also expressed their desire to see the artwork be taken down.
“A lot of people voiced their frustrations, and voices were heard, and the work is coming down as a reaction to that,” artist Ian Gaudreau told the outlet on Monday.
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“I want everybody to know that my intention with the mural was to lower the temperature,” Gaudreau added.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley (D), meanwhile, agrees with Morales’ sentiments, telling NBC 10 WJAR that while the Ukrainian refugee’s murder “was a devastating tragedy,” the so-called “misguided, isolating intent of those funding murals like this across the country is divisive and does not represent Providence.”
“All of this political vitriol being kicked up has removed Iryna from her story,” Gaudreau said. “And I think we’d all do better to remember that.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
