‘Bulletproof Vest For Boys’: Florida Billboards Put A Twist On Police Brutality

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An activist group aiming to organize opposition to killings by police and armed vigilantes has launched satirical ads depicting a new line of bulletproof vests for boys of color.

Mocking an advertisement for a clothing line, a billboard by Dream Defenders in Tallahassee, Fla. depicted a sale event with a young black boy modeling body armor, WCTV reported.

The billboard, along with a video featuring the same theme, was part of the group’s “Vest or Vote” campaign. The ads urged pressure on police departments after the high-profile killings of Michael Brown by a police officer in Missouri and Trayvon Martin by an armed vigilante in Florida.

The campaign doesn’t appear to be advocating for or against any specific ballot measure but is more broadly about voting and voter registration.

“No one wants to live in a world where bulletproof vests are the norm,” read a description on the group’s website. “Vote on November 4th (and earlier, in Florida and most states), and let’s together take a stand on laws, like Stand Your Ground, that create fear and insecurity in our communities.”

Watch the video below:

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Notable Replies

  1. Brilliant.

  2. The Stephen Colbert of advertising billboards.

  3. satirical ads depicting a new line of bulletproof vests for boys of color
    

    Which proves the point I have often made that satire doesn’t have to be funny.

  4. The campaign doesn’t appear to be advocating for or against any specific ballot measure but is more broadly about voting and voter registration.

    Charlie Crist believes Florida’s Stand Your Ground law needs to be changed, Rick Scott doesn’t. During last nights debate Rick Scott even thanked Trayvon Martin’s parents for not creating a “situation” like they have in Missouri.

  5. More of this, please.

    There are a lot of potential progressive/liberal/whatev voters out there who ask: why bother? Give them a lot of very compelling reasons, not as a laundry list, but 1 reason at a time for 1 segment of the potential voters.

    Use mass transit, or want to employ workers who do?

    Have a kid entering college soon and thinking about student loans/grants?

    You or a loved one suffer from or worried about a disease, and there are potential cures being researched with government support?

    Etc.

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