From Santa Ana to Los Angeles, many local businesses were the target of looting and rioting. One of those was Pantry LA on Melrose Avenue. It's doors and windows were destroyed during the weekend violence. Instead of getting angry, the owner decided she would attack back with positivity.

Brandie Rossi spray painted a message on her now boarded up store. She started with the letter “F”. The “F” in this word is for “Forgiveness”.  “If you strike back the way they strike at you, then it gives them power,” she said.

Rossi decided to take her power back with a form of fighting she learned from her grandmother.  Rossi said she was taught, “Violence into violence does nothing but cause a skewed form of new violence. And it’s really true.”

After the curfew was lifted Sunday morning, Rossie returned to her store to find shattered windows, a busted front door, looting, and missing cash registers and computers. She said at first she was definitely angry.  

“I put it into my gym workout, I journaled it," she said. "And then I made sure that when I showed up, that I didn’t show any of it to a community that’s already afraid. A community that’s already feeling the loss at a great level.”

She said this looting and rioting had no connection to the peaceful protests being held throughout the country and in her own backyard.

“I am ashamed of those that are using the Black Lives Matter movement as a way to secretly get away with what they’re getting away with, when they have no affiliation,” Rossi said.

So she’s fighting back the violence — the attacks on local businesses — with love.

The original messages Pantry LA spray painted on their broken storefront was “We are strong” and “We Forgive You,” along with the following hashtags: Black Lives Matter, and Humans Matter. But Rossi said a city of Los Angeles employee had painted over it Monday morning — identifying it as graffiti. Calls to the city were unreturned at the time of this story airing. After this story aired, the Department of Public Works addressed the clean-up effort. “Crews were sent out proactively to remove as much graffiti as possible following the weekend of vandalism and looting in the area, including Melrose Avenue,” the news release stated.

“I am outraged that they would try to take something that is positive and turn it into a blank slate and make it look like we don’t support anything,” Rossi said. “I was boiling over.”

But again, Rossi channeled her anger and decided she’ll put up another positive message. So she gathered spray paint, and painted a new message. One window was repainted with: Respect, Love, Live. The other window was spray painted with: Forgive. #weforgiveyou #humansmatter #blm.

As she finished up the new window messages, Rossi said, “Hashtag love.”

Rossi said love is something the entire country can uses a little bit more of, especially right now.