What's wrong with this picture?
Within two blocks of Overbrook High School on Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia, no less
than 3 billboards glorify a contract killer. The babe on the billboard adores a man aiming a handgun.
This is not the place or time to be selling a movie called HITMAN. West Philadelphia is beset with
hand gun violence. The map below shows the frequency of aggravated assaults committed with a
gun in the year 2006 near Overbrook High and the HITMAN billboard shown above.
What's wrong with Clear Channel Outdoor, the Philadelphia-based advertising company that
posted these billboards?
Clear Channel Outdoor,Tell Clear Channel what you think about their billboards:
Clear Channel Outdoor
9130 State Road
Philadelphia, PA 19136
Phone: 215.827.1100
FAX: 215.827.1101
Encourage Philadelphia City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell to demand removal of the HITMAN
billboards from the streets of Philadelphia. Ask her to introduce legislation banning public
advertising that depicts illegal use of handguns.
Until these billboards are gone, the City of Brotherly Love isn't.
John Hansen-Flaschen
www.jflashphoto.com
Hitman Billboard
Really? All this fuss over a billboard for a movie? Wanting a councilwoman to get a billboard removed, yet you don't agree with people infringing on your rights to carry a weapon and not be searched.
At first glance this is
At first glance this is clearly bad that this sort of billboard is up in this sort of area. However, I think holding freedom of speech outweighs that gut reaction. Additionally, a billboard, no matter the content, is not going increase the use of illegal handguns. It might make some people feel bad, but it also might make people think about how handguns are affecting the area and do something positive against illegal handgun use.
Freedom or Fear
You want /state action/ to forcibly remove the billboards? Government is force. This is incredibly ironic.
gunshot
I lived in West Philly for 8 months and I was very hesistant to moving there from the Port Richmond area, and previous to that San Jose, Calif. Having 3 guy roommates, I thought I'd be okay. Month after month, each one slowly found their way out the door because the crime wasn't only on the news anymore. They were being harrassed and attacked on the streets and on the trollies. This scared me terribly. I understand crime is everywhere, but when it's literally sitting out at your front doorstep, something has to change.
The last straw for me was one summer night, a man's yell at one in the morning, woke me. Not too long after, a woman's scream and "POP, POP!" That was enough to bring tears to my eyes and I called my family that I wanted out. I couldn't continue living in such a neighborhood where gunshots were clearly heard not too far from my bedroom window. I can't imagine how it is for youngsters growing up, families, mothers, the innocent to be exposed to such things all of the time.
Back home, the closest thing to such dangers that I know is in the city of Oakland, CA. I would only visit the area for concerts, which was twice a year. The homicide rate was about 100 persons the year I left California, and Philly seems to be 3- or 4-times that.
Despite the dangers, Philly must be doing something right because I love it here.
-Janette Parangan ~~ SF-born, East Coast-bound
gunshot
I lived in West Philly for 8 months and I was very hesistant to moving there from the Port Richmond area, and previous to that San Jose, Calif. Having 3 guy roommates, I thought I'd be okay. Month after month, each one slowly found their way out the door because the crime wasn't only on the news anymore. They were being harrassed and attacked on the streets and on the trollies. This scared me terribly. I understand crime is everywhere, but when it's literally sitting out at your front doorstep, something has to change.
The last straw for me was one summer night, a man's yell at one in the morning, woke me. Not too long after, a woman's scream and "POP, POP!" That was enough to bring tears to my eyes and I called my family that I wanted out. I couldn't continue living in such a neighborhood where gunshots were clearly heard not too far from my bedroom window. I can't imagine how it is for youngsters growing up, families, mothers, the innocent to be exposed to such things all of the time.
Back home, the closest thing to such dangers that I know is in the city of Oakland, CA. I would only visit the area for concerts, which was twice a year. The homicide rate was about 100 persons the year I left California, and Philly seems to be 3- or 4-times that.
Despite the dangers, Philly must be doing something right because I love it here.
-Janette Parangan ~~ SF-born, East Coast-bound
Response
The HITMAN billboards were taken down in Philadelphia at the end of the contracted run. Shortly afterwards, a disk jockey was fatally shot during a fight at a strip club near the site of the photograph taken above.
The issue is not freedom, but wisdom of public expression. Responsible members of a community beset by handgun violence do not publicly glorify contract killing within spitting distance of public high schools. We ban advertising photographs that sexualize cigarette smoking and should do the same for handguns.
John Hansen-Flaschen
www.jflashphoto.com
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