A brouhaha is brewing in decidedly Democratic Pueblo over a royal dissing Republican President Donald Trump got at a local public museum. To be precise, it was a beating, but – luckily for the newly minted commander in chief – it was only administered to a papier-mâché replica. The kind kids hit with a stick.

The deed went down last Friday on Inauguration Day at the Steel City’s El Pueblo History Museum, a publicly funded, nonprofit facility. A group called the Pueblo Popular Vote Fiesta had organized a rally and march that day to protest the incoming Trump presidency. Organizers rented space at the museum, where, according to a notice they posted on Facebook, the march was scheduled to end in time for a program that included, “A chance to strike a Donald Trump piñata.” The event also promised speeches, live music and, “Button-making for children and adults.”

Particularly the image of an effigy of the new prez being beaten to a bloodless pulp in front of impressionable kids was too much for some Pueblo locals who are now calling for the ouster of museum Director Dawn DiPrince. In fact, just over the past weekend, the critics started a Facebook page called “Dismiss the El Pueblo Museum Director.”  The anonymous page’s “About” profile reads:

This page was created, due to the reaction and outrage of the Pueblo community. On Friday, Vicente Martinez organized a rally called the Pueblo Popular Vote Fiesta, which rented the El Pueblo Museum Facility for an event. This event included button-making and multi-cultural desserts for children, and included a piñata of President Trump, hung from the rafters, as if he were hung by a noose. A Facebook post finished by stating there’s “A chance to strike a Donald Trump piñata”.

A local news station covered the event, but said they could not air their footage, as it was too graphic to show the attack on the piñata.

This is not a Republican or Democrat fight; this is a fight for what is right and wrong. No matter whom the president is – or for anyone as a matter of fact – to show them hanging in a public building, and then used as propaganda during the Inauguration in a public nonprofit institution, is ludicrous.

Regulations for 501c3 were broken, and the President of the United States was portrayed in a threatening manner, which is a federal offense.

We reached out to the museum today, and Communications Director Brittany Gutierrez told us:

“We rent our facility out to a lot of people. This was a rental event. We were led to believe this was a fiesta, a celebration of diversity. It turned out to be something different from what we were led to believe.”

If they had known about the planned beating?

Said Gutierrez, “We would not have allowed that inside the musuem or even on the grounds. We would never have allowed our president to be depicted that way.” She said that’s so, regardless of who is president.

So far, the author(s) of the Facebook page aren’t buying it, as their “About” profile also makes clear:

This is not what Pueblo stands for. Puebloans did not approve this group or El Pueblo Museum to allow such a group to portray such acts in their building. This page was created after El Pueblo Museum did not accept responsibility, and did not find anything wrong with the event held on the premises. El Pueblo Museum, you do not represent the cultural history of Pueblo at this moment in history, and we, the citizens of Pueblo, are calling you out to remedy this situation, and to ensure that this will never happen again. The citizens of Pueblo are calling for the director to step down, because numerous regulations were broken and the integrity of El Pueblo Museum will now be put into question for a long time to come. This is not what Pueblo stands for, and we will ensure that Pueblo is represented justly.

UPDATE: Today, Pueblo Republican state Rep. Clarice Navarro wrote the El Pueblo Museum’s parent entity, History Colorado, calling for the release of additional information that could be pertinent to last Friday’s Trump thumping. Navarro shared her letter with the press and public. The letter to History Colorado Executive Director Steve Turner, which cites the Colorado Open Records Act, seeks a wide range of additional data:

How much taxpayer money is received by the El Pueblo History Museum each year?

Who organized the event in which the effigy was placed?

Who is the Director or lead staff for the El Pueblo Museum?

Please provide, in electronic form, any email exchanges regarding this issue that include any or all of the following from taxpayer funded email accounts: Trump, piñata, strike & ANY and ALL forms of the date of January 20, 2017  1/20/17  or  01-20-17.

Who hung the actual “piñata,” and who directed the individual(s) to do so?

Does El Pueblo Museum have a “Set of Standards”, if so, please provide.

Navarro’s letter also expresses her displeasure with the whole affair:

…freedom of speech is a beautiful thing in this great Nation of ours, but for this to have been paid for at taxpayer expense at a venue that is funded by taxpayers is, in my mind, unacceptable.  There is a serious professional judgment issue at hand here, and I intend to find out who is responsible.

We’ll stay tuned.