UPDATED: May 13, 2016, at 5:23 p.m.

Earlier today, a display by the College Republicans in the Collis Center expressing support for police for National Police Week was removed and replaced by another series of posters.

At some point in the morning, the display was removed and replaced with several posters saying, “You cannot co-opt the movement against state violence to memorialize its perpetrators. #blacklivesmatter.” Several students, who declined to comment, seated themselves on the ground across from the posters.

Mikala Williams ’18, one of the students who replaced the display, said that she and several other students replaced the signs because they felt it reinforced police violence against people of color.

“It was taken down by students and replaced because it actively co-opted a movement that is supposed to comment on police brutality against black individuals in this country,” she said. “It took that and by framing that as ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ it normalizes and naturalizes violence against people of color in this country. And that is not okay. That is in no way okay.”

The original posters listed statistics about police fatalities in the United States, as well as deaths of policemen and firefighters on 9/11. Several flyers on the display expressed the slogan “Blue Lives Matter,” a phrase that references the Black Lives Matter movement and has been used to express support for police officers.

Posters have also been put up in Baker-Berry Library in several locations.

The College Republicans posted a statement on its Facebook page at 2:18 p.m. confirming that they put up the original display. They said that they had received approval to post it in Collis and expressed dismay that other students chose to take the display down.

They also said they hoped to raise more awareness of the efforts of law enforcement officers to protect communities, especially those who are killed in the line of duty, and pointed to the non-fatal shooting of two New Hampshire officers this morning.

