Police groups also want to paint a ‘Blue Lives Matter’ street mural in New York City

Police advocacy groups Blue Lives Matter NYC and Standing Up for NYC have teamed up to call New York Mayor Bill De Blasio to paint a street mural near the New York Police Department headquarters at One Police Plaza.

“I think it was a form of positive action that will give people from all walks of life an option to express themselves and bring to light the problems that we as a nation must unite to solve,” Imperatrice said of inspiration.

“The ‘Blue Lives Matter’ mural would raise awareness of the physical and verbal abuse that officers experience on a daily basis. It would also be a way to remember our fallen heroes who have lost their lives defending their cities,” said Imperatrice. “Just as Black Lives Matter wants to draw attention to an issue, they should, like us.”

The Blue Lives Matter organization, a group of poorly affiliated police officers and their supporters, emerged as a counter-movement to the Black Lives Matter movement after the 2014 killings of New York Police officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. It has inspired some statewide legislation aimed at making law enforcement a protected class under hate crime laws.

Those bills were criticized in 2018 by NAACP, ACLU, and others as a “political response” to national calls for police reform.

De Blasio approved the “Black Lives Matter” street mural and even participated in painting a small portion after President Trump tweeted that the mural would be “denigrating” Fifth Avenue.

“President Trump said we would be denigrating the luxury of Fifth Avenue,” de Blasio said in response to Trump’s tweet. “Let me tell you: we are not denigrating anything, we are releasing Fifth Avenue, we are raising Fifth Avenue.”

The Black Lives Matter organization, the mayor’s office and New York police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN.

CNN’s Brian Ries, Scottie Andrew and Allison Gordon contributed to this report.