Painting At The Capital

There has been a lot of postings on line this week about a painting that was hung in the Capital which depicts a police officer as a pig shooting African Americans.  This was hung last week and then taken down by another member of Congress.  After that it was hung again by the Representative that had originally placed it in the hallway along with members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

As a law enforcement officer for nearly 36 years I think it is offensive, depicting police officers that way is a generalization and mischaracterization of the men and women that serve their communities day in and day out.  The vast, vast majority are good officers that only want to help people and return to their loved ones at the end of their shift.  But we all took an oath of office and in that oath was a commitment to uphold the Constitution of the United States, not only the articles we agree with, all of the articles and freedom of expression is a fundamental part of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

I think the bigger issue is when did members of the CBC choose to rehang the painting.  They chose to do so within hours of Orlando Police Department Master Sergeant Debra Clayton being shot and killed, hours after Orange County Sheriff’s Department Deputy First Class Norman Lewis was killed in a motor vehicle crash responding to the scene to search for Sergeant Clayton's murderer.  Before the bodies could be returned to their families this painting was rehung.  At first I was wondering why did it have to go back up within hours of two law enforcement officers giving their lives trying to protect their community, after all if you don’t respect Sergeant Clayton or Deputy Lewis’ chosen profession how about the CBC at the very least show a little compassion for two African American public servants losing their life.  How about waiting a day as a courtesy to two African American families that are being notified and having to grasp the news of a family member being killed?  Then I remembered that in the painting the pig in a police uniform is black!

Members of Congress are supposed to represent their community and I am still an optimist because I can’t believe that we as Americans are as insensitive as our elected representative are.

THAT'S MY OPINION, WHAT'S YOURS