Last month, a sick individual slaughtered 12 people and wounded 70 in a Colorado movie theater. Two days ago, a racist skinhead killed six innocent people at their place of worship. And until several weeks ago, you could buy T-shirts from Emmure singer Frankie Palmeri’s clothing line, Cold Soul, glorifying racism and gun violence.
Online metal merch retailer All In Merch stated on July 27 that they’d shut down Cold Soul. That was a week after the Aurora movie theater massacre, meaning that for one week after the massacre, Emmure fans could buy a shirt featuring a security camera picture of Columbine CO killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold with the caption “Shoot first, ask questions last” on the back.
There was another shirt that featured a still from American History X, with Ed Norton blowing smoke in an African American’s face with the caption reading “Violence is a way of life.” If you saw the film the still comes from, you’d realize that it condemns racism, but you wouldn’t get that from looking at the design.
Look, we get it. You’ve got a shirt company and want provocative designs. But both shirts go beyond being borderline offensive, and are in awful taste. Even before the events of the last month, they were immature and insensitive – now they’re just awful. It’s uncertain as to whether it was All In that pulled the plug, or if Palmeri realized just how offensive his designs were and asked to have the store shut down. But given that the designs existed in the first place, we’re guessing it’s the first of those. Also, if you bought one these shirts, and are proudly wearing it, consider yourself an asshole.
We have a request in with Emmure’s publicist to see if there’s any statement on the matter from the label or Palmeri himself. We’ll let you know if or when we hear anything.
[via The PRP]
