Burlington City Council Passes Resolution Asking Burton To Meet With Protesters
The controversy over Burton’s Love and Primo graphics seems to take on a new facet daily. In the most recent step to curb Burton’s freedom to create boards with graphics that community members have taken offense to, the Burlington, Vermont City Council passed a resolution Monday by a vote of 12 to 1 asking the company to meet with the leader’s of the citizen groups protesting the boards that feature PG-13 Playboy centerfolds with no naughty bits, and drawings of hands being mutilated.
According to the Burlington Free Press:
The resolution, a softer version of the one originally proposed, doesn’t force Burton to take any action, but rather encourages the Burlington-based company to listen to the concerns of community organizations that say that the boards promote self-harm and misogyny.
The original resolution, sponsored by councilors Kurt Wright, R-Ward 4; Joan Shannon, D-Ward 5; Clarence Davis, P-Ward 3; and Jane Knodell, P-Ward 2, asked that Burton withdraw the boards from the market, a request that city councilor Ed Adrian, D-Ward 1, thought was unnecessary.
“My personal opinion is that people should be allowed to make choices, whatever they are,” Adrian said.
Russ Ellis, D-Ward 4 said he wasn’t interested in having the council censor any business and likened the Burton issue to Burlington Telecom’s decision to carry the Al-Jazeera network.
“I don’t think we want to get into the issue of being a censoring board. It’s really not appropriate for the City Council to be dealing with,” Ellis said.
“They don’t have to answer to us, to me, to anyone. But again, my response to that is I hope they would take the high road,” Wright said.
mike lewis
- November 19 2008 | 820 views | 5 comments
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