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INWOOD, MANHATTAN (PIX11)

The wall where the mural had been is now a long, black expanse with specks of bright colors peeking out from behind the black cover paint. The colorful undercoat hints at what had been on the wall on the north side of 4979 Broadway.

"The NYPD has murdered people," artist Alan Ket told PIX11 News. "Ramarley Graham, that's one of them. I have a list -- Sean Bell, Amidou Diallo..."

Ket acknowledged that the mural was provocative. Every three or four months, he paints a new mural on the wall of the single-story building, which houses New Edition Dry Cleaners. Ket has had an agreement with the business's owners for the last six years to display his art on their wall.

Last Thursday, Ket painted the "Murderers" mural, but on Tuesday, plainclothes NYPD officers not only started painting over it with black paint, they began their process of black-washing by painting over the NYPD coffin.

"I feel insulted," said Ket, who lives a few blocks away from the location from which his art was removed. "How they can have the audacity and come into a community and censor art that's done by the citizens of the community?

Members of the Curet Family, who own New Edition Cleaners, told PIX11 News that the police requested the family's permission before bringing out and using the buckets of black paint.

However, Angel Curet, son of the dry cleaner's primary owner, said that the NYPD's request felt much more like a heavy-handed suggestion. "It's kind of like Russia," Curet said. "This is not America. That is how I feel."

"Nobody wants to have problems with cops," artist Ket said, offering his interpretation of how the whole thing played out. "That's jut the way it is. Who wants to have problems with the police?"

The New York Civil Liberties Union, which has had more than its fair share of legal confrontations with the NYPD, gave a heated assessment of the situation. "I'm appalled," NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman said to PIX11 News. "The police do not have the right to censor material they don't agree with. This is a violation of the First Amendment."

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Cries Of Censorship After NYPD Paints Over 'Murderers' Mural