Got Democracy

San Francisco street art.

San Francisco - Posters depicting Iraqi prisoner abuse have sprung up mysteriously on walls and buildings around San Francisco over the past week.

The posters show a hooded Iraqi man with his hands tied with electrodes. The image is set against an American flag with the words "Got Democracy?"



Novelist Robert Mailer Anderson is organizing the attention-getting campaign along with his cousin.

The 35-year-old author of "Boonville" spent three thousand dollars to print and hang one thousand posters.

The posters are a take-off on the "Got Milk?" advertising campaign.

He says it's not intended to spark debate about democracy in Iraq and the United States.

Anderson says he started hanging the posters because he was angry about Washington's policies and the Patriot Act.

[UPDATE] 6.29.2004 Just heard from Robert Mailer Anderson & Zack Anderson, co-creators of the Got Democracy? poster. Seems the AP report misquoted Robert. Shocker. I am a little disappointed in myself for not catching it. Of course the posters were intended to spark debate. Why else would they have been created?