A Step In The Right Direction

Normally, I am against censorship, but considering six of my fellow officers have been shot in two months, I am completely on board with this editorial. It is posted in its entirety, because I think it needs to be.

HITMAN OFFED

IN A CITY with a real-life gun problem, ads glorifying gun violence to sell movies can be particularly sickening. So we're glad to report that some in City Hall are taking it personally and saying, "Enough is enough."

Billboards and SEPTA bus ads for the movie "Hitman" went up a few weeks ago. They show a man pointing a gun, with a nearly naked woman draped over him.

According to Mayor Street's office, some police officers who saw the ads cried foul. Understandable, since many of them had probably just come back from the funeral of Officer Chuck Cassidy, killed by gunshot.

The mayor made some calls, asking that the billboards be taken down. SEPTA says the contracts were up anyway. But the billboard company, Clear Channel Outdoor, says it started taking them down before the contracts were up. It naturally doesn't want to broadcast this, since its business is keeping advertisers happy.

But we think the mayor and Clear Channel deserve credit for pushing back against the cultural tsunami of images that romanticize and sexualize gun violence - and leave the rest of us to clean up the real-life blood. (H/T - The Philadelphia Daily News)

In the interest of full disclosure, I own two of the "Hitman" games. Having said that, I can distinguish between a video game and real life. Sadly, there are plenty of people out there that either can not or will not. Until they can differentiate between the two, I have no problem pulling these kinds of ads.