Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter took matters into his own hands this week and personally removed a painting depicting police officers as pigs hanging on Capitol Hill.
The California congressman told Fox News he unscrewed the artwork and delivered it to Democratic Rep. William Lacy Clay’s office.
The painting, by high school student David Pulphus, won Clay’s Congressional art competition in May 2016, and has been hanging in the Cannon tunnel of the Capitol complex.
Clay’s office praised the painting in a news release at the time, writing, “The painting portrays a colorful landscape of symbolic characters representing social injustice, the tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri and the lingering elements of inequality in modern American society.”
But the law enforcement community, including Capitol Police, and members of Congress took issue with the artwork after its existence was reported by Independent Journal Review.
Andy Maybo, president of The Fraternal Order of Police District of Columbia Lodge #1, demanded the painting to be removed, calling it “offensive and disgusting” in a statement to the Daily Caller last week.
“There’s nothing appropriate about a painting that depicts police officers at pigs. Representative Hunter removed the painting and returned it, but as easy as it came down — it can go back up,” the Congressman’s chief of staff Joe Kasper wrote in an email Friday.
Kasper said reaction from law enforcement has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Law enforcement everywhere is showing its support. Even Capitol Hill police officers have been coming by to say thank you,” he said.