If there was a guide book on “How to Make Your Strip Club More Tasteless,” the author would be the owner of Club Velvet, Samuel J.T. Moore III.
Moore wasn’t content with the ho-hum shadiness that comes hand-in-hand with being in the Gentlemen’s Club business. No, he decided to take it up a notch.
Now there’s an 8-foot-by-10-foot banner of Obama dressed up like the Joker from the Batman movie. With the word SOCIALISM beneath it.
Classy, right?
Moore said he put up the poster because he’s unhappy with the administration’s handling of the financial crisis. He said that the country is “going to hell in a handbasket” under Obama’s leadership.
But a strip club owner calling out the President?
Isn’t that a little strange? Is your irony bone tingling a little?
Well, if it’s not, it should be. Maybe for the following reasons:
- Does Samuel J.T. Moore III have any business calling anybody the Joker? I mean, besides himself? Have you seen this guy’s picture? He has a blob-like neck tattoo. It looks a bit like a raccoon creeping out of his shirt. Either that or it’s a tattoo of crooked ascot, I can’t tell which. Anyway, he’s got more ink on his face than the Joker ever had. Actually, Moore was that creepy guy who was all over the papers just a couple of months ago. I can’t really recall what for… wait a second, I’ll think of it.
- Does it make an odd sort of sense that Samuel J.T. Moore III – a man who profits off the exploitation of women – should be calling the President a Socialist? Moore says he’s a Libertarian. Have you ever noticed how many former Republicans now call themselves Libertarians? It’s not strange that Libertarians (i.e. ashamed Republicans) don’t know what Socialism is. Even the people that still call themselves Republicans don’t know what Socialism is, and they call Obama that all the time.
- It’s a little strange that Samuel J.T. Moore III – yes the same guy that was all over the papers last summer – can really take any kind of judgmental high ground at all. After all he was convicted of having sex with a minor and trying to videotape it. He served 60 days of his sentence in the city jail.
- And then, what about Moore’s own business savvy? The man said that he is most concerned about Obama’s financial leadership. Samuel J.T. Moore III knows business and how to succeed, right? Well, not so much. The board of Alcohol Beverage Control is threatening to take away Club Velvet’s liquor license because it served minors and “creating a haven for illegal activities.” And I’ll bet it’ll be tough to run a strip club without a liquor license.
On Monday, Sept. 28, about three dozen people attended a lunchtime protest outside of Velvet. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginia NAACP Executive Director King Salim Khalfani addressed the crowd and inferred that the poster was racist.
"It is apparent that he and others are comfortable disrespecting the president," he said. “Why? The answer is simple: because the president has African blood."
Read more about that story here.
City council member Ellen Robertson acknowledged on CBS 6 that she’ll be speaking with the City Attorney about the sign. She hopes that the city will have an ordinance that would apply to the sign and that the city will be able to ask Moore to remove it. Read that story here.
But overall, the feeling is that Moore is constitutionally protected under the first amendment. His poster, whether you find it distasteful or not, is probably covered by free speech and he can hang it on his own property.
It just sucks for the rest of us in Richmond who have to drive by it.
Francis Decker is a freelancer for Richmond.com and his opinions don't reflect that of Richmond.com's. He teaches English at a local Richmond high school. Check back later this week for a counterpoint on this issue.
What do you think about the Obama poster? Should it stay? Should it go? Post your comments here.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement