Group's protest gets drug T-shirts pulled

The T-shirts have slogans such as 'The Pillsbury Dope Boy.'
BY AMANDA GARRETT
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A city shop owner agreed to stop selling controversial T-shirts after the Warren Ministerial Alliance and other concerned citizens staged a protest Thursday.
The T-shirts that Rose Beauty and J Fashions in Austin Village Plaza on West Market Street were selling mix pop culture icons with drug references.
For example, one T-shirt has a replica of a Kellogg's Frosted Flakes box, but instead of Tony the Tiger, the shirt features Stony the Tiger hawking "Frosted Flakes of Caine."
The Rev. Vincent Peterson, who organized the protest, said the shirts were sending the wrong message to impressionable children.
"These T-shirts are desensitizing our young people to drugs, prostitution, stripping and murder," he said.
Items such as the T-shirt are making it harder for parents to rear their children with moral values, Peterson said.
"Three 6 Mafia won an Oscar for the song 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp,'" he said. "The truth is, it's hard out here for a parent, not a pimp."
Familiar characters
Children might be lured into drug use because the T-shirts have characters that are familiar to them, said Gail Salter of Warren, who came to the protest as a concerned mother.
"These shirts look glitzy and friendly," she said. "Instead of the Pillsbury Dough Boy, they have the 'Pillsbury Dope Boy.' There's a possibility that children could mix that up in their minds."
As store employees peered through the windows to watch, about 30 protesters marched outside with signs that said "For the wages of sin are death" and "No beauty in roses."
Although Rose Beauty owner Bruce Han of Youngstown agreed to immediately take the items off the store shelves, he said he feels he has a right to sell them.
"This is America," he said. "It's a free country. This is not illegal."
Owner's reaction
Han said he would remove the T-shirts but said he thinks the boycott is threatening his business.
The alliance was trying to protect children, not threaten anyone, Peterson said.
"These shirts are promoting drugs in our community, and we don't accept drugs in our community," he said. "We don't want our children in jail, and we don't want them dead."
Peterson said alliance members had asked for the shirts to be removed several times without success, so they decided to start the boycott and protest.
The Ministerial Alliance planned to boycott Rose Beauty and protest every Thursday until the T-shirts were removed from the store, Peterson said.
The group will stop the boycott if Han removes the T-shirts as he promised, but members will periodically check the store to make sure the items have not returned.
The group plans to contact the companies whose logos are being used on the T-shirts, and they also plan to protest at other stores that sell the clothing.
agarrett@vindy.com