An art exhibit showing at Sacramento State portrays cops as pigs that shoot guns wildly, but the senior art student insists his paintings have “deeper meanings.” That’s probably why he wrote, “f*** the police” on one of them.

The student, Jacob Lewis, began painting cops as pigs last year in response to  Black Lives Matter’s anti-cop mission. He told CBS 13 that he wanted to “send a message” with his work “rather than paint something that looks cool.”

“There’s a lot of deeper meanings in there,” Lewis insisted.

One painting has a pig in a police uniform appearing to lay on its side. It’s eyes display the “X” symbol, typically denoting death. A second pig cop is blindfolded and shooting his gun irresponsibly in the air. But Lewis said his paintings shouldn’t be interpreted as a statement on all police officers.

“Not all cops are to blame for the situation, but I’m basically just trying to bring attention to the fact that there are a lot of bad cops out there,” he said.

However, a fellow student, Arianna Perez, won’t label the work “art” and finds it offensive. She said, “Police officers, they put on a uniform and go out to work every single day and to view them or perceive them as something like this, it’s pretty upsetting.” Perez is a grad student who is planning on working in law enforcement.

Sacramento State stands behind the exhibit, and gave the standard “art promotes dialogue” excuse. Despite the controversy, the exhibit, which includes other paintings that doesn’t bash cops, will stay up for the rest of the week.

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