Student’s painting sparks feud in House over police
WASHINGTON — A young Missouri student’s painting of civil unrest has sparked a battle in the halls of the U.S. Capitol between black Democrats concerned about what they call a legacy of unjust policing and several white Republicans who are defending law enforcement.
The tiff spiraled out of control Tuesday, with House Republicans acting on two separate occasions to pull the artwork down from a tunnel in the Capitol complex, after it was rehung by Rep. William Clay Jr., D-Mo., whose young constituent painted it.
The painting by recent high school graduate David Pul phus depi c t s a s c e ne inspired by the 2014 events in Ferguson, Mo., and other recent protests against police led by African-Americans. Several figures are depicted as animals, and some pro-police activists have said the rendering evokes derogatory images of police as pigs.
It is part of a national art competition, one of 435 artworks chosen by local panels of artists to hang in the underground tunnel between the Capitol and the Cannon House Office Building.
Clay appeared in the tunnel with fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Tuesday to rehang the painting after it had first been removed Friday by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., — who took it down, in a spokesman’s words, to “make a statement” about his support for law enforcement and delivered it to Clay’s office.
Clay and others defended Pulphus’ right to free expression, and to have his views represented on the walls of the U.S. Capitol — a building, they pointed out, that contains numerous statues of Confederate leaders and other racist historical figure.
C l ay s a i d h e was “n o t anti-police” and that hi s family includes many law enforcement members. But he said Pulphus had a right to express his impression of the struggles black Americans have had with police.
The painting hung in the Capitol for several months without incident before a conservative website, Independent Journal Review, wrote about it, and a Fox News personality highlighted it on air in late December.
Several law enforcement groups have called for the painting’s removal. But it was Hunter’s decision to take matters into his own hands that escalated the dispute.
After Clay rehung the painting Tuesday, Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., took it down and, like Hunter, returned it to Clay’s office. Clay once again rehung the painting, but later in the afternoon, Reps. Brian Babin, R-Texas, and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., again removed it.
R e p . D a v e R e i c h e r t , R-Wash., is petitioning for the painting’s removal in a forthcoming letter to the Architect of the Capitol that cites rules of the yearly Congressional Art Competition. They stipulate that “exhibits depicting subjects of contemporary political controversy or a sensationalistic or gruesome nature are not allowed.”
Clay said Pulphus’s painting, in his view, comported with those rules: “The African-American community has had a painful, tortured history with law enforcement in this country,” he said. “That’s not contemporary, that’s historic.”