NOTE: This isn’t the normal fare for WUWT, but it has happened in my town, and this website is still connected to the local newspaper, the Chico Enterprise Record, where it got it’s start, so I’m covering it.

UPDATE: It gets worse. The website for the store sells T-shirts depicting cop killings see below

In less than 24 hours, a billboard comparing President Donald Trump to Hitler was installed and removed at East Third and Mangrove avenues.
The advertisement, paid for by local clothing store Rouse & Revolt, depicted Trump with a 45 fashioned on his sleeve in a swastika-style armband, his face stony amid nuclear explosions occurring behind him on the billboard’s red background.

Stott Outdoor Advertising took the display down after people erupted on social media.
The advertisement was called disgusting, despicable and “plain stupid,” by some, while others expressed support for Rouse & Revolt.

Images via Facebook page of Action News Now, Chico, CA

“Her billboard may have already been taken down, but any store owner that will speak truth to power in such a grand way has my support. I only wished I lived closer to Chico so I can show support through my wallet as well,” wrote Facebook user Tamara Hinckley.

While some called for a boycott of the business, others spoke about free speech and letting people express themselves.
Rouse & Revolt store owner Nicholle Haber Lewis wrote the following message with the original image on Facebook when the billboard first went up:

“We support equality, we support equal rights, we support a woman’s right to her own body, we support DACA, we support universal health care, we support gay people in any Place they live. We welcome all races, all religions, all countries of origin, all genders and we not only STAND with you, we kneel with you as well. Rouse & Revolt”

More here at Chicoer

Stott Outdoor Advertising has confirmed they took this billboard down. Owner Jim Moravec has sent us the following statement:

“The core business of Stott Outdoor Advertising is providing a unique forum for the expression of ideas, both commercial and non-commercial. In this instance, the advertising message chosen by Rouse and Revolt clearly went beyond a commercial message and was primarily political in nature. Stott Outdoor has accepted and displayed political advertising for many years representing a wide variety of viewpoints, so long as the speaker is clearly identified and the message is legal, moral, and ethical. If those criteria are met, then Stott Outdoor is not going to be the party to limit the advertiser’s message. 

In this instance, it has become obvious in hindsight that the identity of the speaker is insufficiently clear. While we here at Stott Outdoor have knowledge of Rouse and Revolt, a clothing company which has advertised with us in the past, many others do not have such knowledge of the business, and have interpreted the name of the business as a command or instruction. This confusion over the identity of the speaker, combined with the depiction of violence, prompted us to remove the advertising message.”

UPDATE:

It gets worse, apparently hate is a theme with this store, as you can buy a t-shirt that depicts cop-killing as this screencap shows: