A local artist painted a mural depicting the words “Baby Lives Matter” outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Salt Lake City.
“With recent events unfolding, everybody knows about the Black Lives Matter murals unfolding around the nation,” Tayler Hansen, the artist who painted the mural, said. “I thought I would bring awareness to one of the biggest human rights crises that nobody wants to talk about.”
Hansen said he intentionally used paint that would easily wash away so he would not be slapped with a vandalism charge by local authorities.
Black Lives Matter has been a rallying cry for social justice activists since the death of George Floyd and other black people who have died during interactions with police.
President Trump has criticized the movement, saying it promotes a “hateful” anti-police message that is bad for the country.
“… horrible BLM chant, ‘Pigs In A Blanket, Fry ‘Em Like Bacon’. [sic] Maybe our GREAT Police, who have been neutralized and scorned by a mayor who hates & disrespects them, won’t let this symbol of hate be affixed to New York’s greatest street. Spend this money fighting crime instead!” Trump wrote on Twitter at the beginning of July.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio participated in the city-sanctioned painting of a Black Lives Matter mural in front of Trump Tower in Manhattan.
“Obviously we want the president to hear it because he’s never shown respect for those three words,” de Blasio said. “When he hears Black Lives Matter, he presents a horrible negative reality of something that doesn’t exist, and he misses the underlying meaning that we’re saying we have to honor the role of African Americans in our history and our society.”
