Boarded-up Apple Stores decorated in touching tribute messages

Apple Store Blm
Apple Store Blm (Image credit: @TobeySanford)

What you need to know

  • Apple has boarded up many of its stores to protect against looting and rioting.
  • Protestors have adorned them with positive messages.
  • In Naperville, heart-shaped notes were left with messages of love and support.

Apple stores in America, boarded up to prevent looting, have been adorned with messages of hope and support for the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

As reported by 9to5Mac:

Activism sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has spread across all 50 US states. Apple Stores have been swept up in the momentum, looted and vandalized as some protests turned to violence. Now, some peaceful protestors are reimagining the boarded-up windows of Apple Stores as canvases for a positive message.

As Michael Steeber notes, over a dozen Apple stores in the U.S. were looted over the weekend, as protests over the death of George Floyd turned violent, with rioting and looting distracting many from the message at hand.

Apple has since boarded up some of its stores and has also closed many stores it had previously just reopened across the country. The report highlights how some of the boarded-up stores have been used to spread messages of hope.

The Apple store in Portland was adorned with a huge 'I can't breathe' mural:

https://twitter.com/Alice_Evelyn_/status/1267608590811951107?

In Naperville, dozens of people left heart-shaped messages on the store:

Another mural and messages of support for the 'Black Lives Matter' movement were seen in Palo Alto:

Earlier today, Tim Cook penned an open letter titled Speaking up on racism, in which he described the killing of George Floyd as "senseless" and said that "we must do more." Apple has not commented at all on the destruction seen in some of its retail locations.

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9