European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 12, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday March 12, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 7paint splashed on alcohol cigarette signs new York apr Harlem residents splashed paint Over More than a dozen alcohol and cigarette billboard signs saturday and cheered a company that followed suit. Singing a yield not to temptation a about 50 members of the abyssinian Baptist Church marched with buckets and paint rollers Down a Street in Harlem. It was the groups second swing through Harlem in two weeks. Earlier it painted Over several billboards prompting one outdoor advertising company to announce that Johnny Walker scotch and Hennessey Cognac would be banned from its billboards in Low income communities. A alcohol kills More people than heroin marijuana crack and cocaine together a said the Rev. Calvin o. Butts the protest organizer and Church pastor. Butts said billboards advertising such products As whiskey and cigarettes Quot proliferate in the african american Community More than any other Community a often degrade women and Are designed to entice youths. A the Board says a alive with pleasure a but Tell that to someone dying of lung cancer a Butts said. The group whitewashed More than a dozen 6-foot-by-12-foot billboards. Four police cars and a police Van tailed the crowd which included several children. A we Are using discretion a said police capt. Terry Tunnock. A we Haven to had complaints from anyone. If any of the companies do complain there could be arrests but none have come  protesters gathered at the Church saturday before hitting the streets with their Whitewash and rollers. They got a Surprise announcement from a visitor John Brown who is vice president of a sign company. He announced that his company one of the largest in the City and one of the biggest distributors of Small billboards in the United states would remove liquor and cigarette billboards within five blocks of places of worship schools and play areas in new York. He said the company would consider doing the the Rev. Calvin o. Butts paints Over a liquor advertisement in Harlem on saturday. Same elsewhere in the country. Brown noted similar whitewashing campaigns Are under Way in Chicago Detroit and Oakland Calif. A if we Are to survive As advertisers in the �?T90s, we need to take positive action a he said. The billboard blotting campaigns come at a time of heightened criticism of manufacturers that target advertising for cigarettes and alcohol at minority Consumers. In january . Reynolds tobacco co. Cancelled plans to Market a new cigarette Uptown. The ads were tailored to win Over Blacks but were cancelled after health and human services Secretary Louis Sullivan joined Philadelphia Community groups in criticizing the Campaign. Officials in Richmond Calif., arc considering a ban on alcohol and tobacco billboard advertising near schools. A we have to get at the Basic underlying motivations of people and we believe that these alcohol and cigarette billboards Send a mixed message to kids who Are being taught in a school to shun drugs a said Jim Rogers chairman of a Richmond anti drug task Force. A metropolitan outdoor advertising worker perched on a ladder got cheers and applause from paint slinging protesters As he papered Over a billboard advertising Beer with a new message a god makes House  a few bystanders some sipping from cans or bottles hidden inside Brown paper bags were unimpressed with the Effort. A it ainu to going to work a said an elderly Man watching the group. He nudged a Young Man standing next to him who held up his Brown paper bag and said a this is a personal  the protesters worked at one Point in a vacant lot littered with garbage and ankle deep in spots with empty cans. Across the Street 21-year-old Larry Rodgers said he did no to think the billboard Campaign would change much. A on every Corner there a a liquor store and a bar a said Rodgers who described himself As a recovering alcoholic. A a it a a Good idea but its not going to  has upstate . County residents jumpy by the new York times Ithaca . A Tompkins county Esi acts who have Long considered 5.arca a Pristine Refuge from the orld Are suddenly feeling that some icing has gone terribly wrong. ?Eja?1 few months nine people Eonni v10lent,y a this Finger lakes county in upstate new York. A i i i10 Quot first Aad most shocking Inci a red up four members of a suburban family on dec. 22, put Oil or a to Var their Heads shot them two a heir Bodi Eton fire head and the Quot 861 Lur of amp if apparently random a a a those killings shocked residents. Out be Tipne it Lune violence a a shoot those Kili Inoc be 1 0 and a suspect in deaths of two Rex 0tber killings and the people Wondim f k-0 a fire has made full caught up wkh6fiproblems have said pc few a and overwhelmed a for 34 years 1,Ved in Ithaca it Ever Neve Manh Al Peop has been happen to Msj where bad thugs done to just caught Upu Ith  maybe e a dds a count a who live in Tompye and the roughly 29,000 residents of Ithaca a its major City a consider the area special because it combines Rural life with the Best features of cities. The area on the Edge of Cayuga Lake is Home to Cornell University and Ithaca College. The county has not been without its share of violence but the number of murders has been Low. Most of them were drug related or a result of Domestic violence and most people feel any threat to them is Remote. That sense of Security was shattered when Warren Harris 39 his wife Dolores 40 and their children Shelby 15, and Marc 11, were killed on dec. 22 in their Home in the suburb of Dryden. Police said the motive was robbery and people rushed to secure their Homes buying dogs deadbolts and Security systems. Applications for pistol permits almost tripled at the Tompkins county sheriff s department from 16 in january 1989 to 44 for the same period in 1990. After state police on feb. 7 arrested two people in connection with the slayings there was an initial sense of Relief. But because the prime suspect Michael Kinge 33, was killed by the police in a shootout Many county residents now feel they will never learn Why the Harris family was singled out. Four More deaths further stunned the area. On feb. 2, Christine Lane 23, reported to the sheriff s department that her 2-year-old daughter Aliza Bush had disappeared from their apartment in Lansing. Hundreds of firefighters and volunteers searched the Woods without Success. On feb. 7, Lane received a package in the mail containing her daughters Pink Mitten which led investigators to think the girl had been kidnapped. But on feb. 15, Lane recanted her Story and led investigators to her daughters body which she said she had buried in the Woods. Lane said she had mailed her daughters Glove to herself to throw off the police. She is being held on Misdemeanour charges of lying to the police. As the Community was coping with this loss 31-year-old Ellen Newhart was found dead on feb. 19 in the Woods in Danby nine Miles South of Ithaca. A suspect Ernest Vann was picked up on feb. 21 while hitchhiking in Virgina. He has since been charged with the slaying. Then on feb. 23, two children 10-year-old Samantha Backes and 10-month-old Blake Estes were killed in a House fire in Ithaca. A people Are in an uproar a said Marian Van Roesl the director of the Tompkins county suicide prevention and crisis service. A a sense of Security they had from believing they lived in a Safe Community where violence was not present is  Tom Schneider a psychotherapist said Many people cannot sleep Well have nightmares and jump at the slightest sounds. Julie Schmo Cdr of Ithaca said she freezes in fear every time she hears a car approaching her Home. A i listen for cars slowing Down a she said. A noises that were once familiar like Wood clunking Down in the stove Are now not  Deborah Dietrich a member of the Tompkins county Board of representatives said she bolted from sleep one night after she dreamed that her family was in danger and she could not help them. After she awoke she said she Lay awake going Over the possible escape routes her family could take if someone broke into their House. After the Harris family was killed Schneider offered to Start a walk in clinic at a nearby school. He said that at least a dozen women came in to talk about How overwhelmed they Felt and that those feelings brought Back memories of sexual abuse in childhood