A billboard in Colorado which depicted
President Barack Obama as a gangster, a Mexican bandit, a suicide
bomber and a gay man was removed days after it was erected, the
Daily Sentinel reported.
The caricature shows four Obamas
playing poker alongside rats, while two vultures peer on. “Vote
DemocRAT, join the game,” is written along the top. Tags on the
vultures say Soros and U.N.
The billboard was criticized by local
Democrats and Republicans for being racist and disrespectful.
The artist, Paul Snover, who had hoped
to tour the piece to other cities after the November midterm
elections, said he received “very hateful” emails and phone
calls. He refused to say who paid him $500 to create the image.
“He was wanting to represent the
influences he saw the president as having in his administration,”
Snover
told KJCT8. “The Obamas are surrounded by rats named FED, EPA
and trial lawyers, and vultures named after George Soros and the
United Nations.”
A local Tea Party group was
disappointed to find the Billboard in Grand Junction missing on
Friday when members arrived to rally around the sign.
Friends of the owner of the billboard
said he decided to remove the sign after protesters began calling his
wife.