Virginia NAACP protests Obama 'Joker' poster outside Richmond strip club

The Virginia NAACP called it an abomination and a sign of disrespect. The owner of a downtown Richmond strip club called it exercising his right to free speech.

About three dozen people attended a lunchtime protest yesterday outside Velvet, where a new banner on one of the exterior walls depicts President Barack Obama as the Joker of "Batman" movie fame.

The banner was unfurled over the weekend by club owner Samuel J.T. Moore III and overlooks a busy intersection outside his business at 15th and East Main streets.

"It is apparent that he and others are comfortable disrespecting the president," King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the Virginia NAACP, told the crowd. "Why? The answer is simple: because the president has African blood."

Obama has played down talk of being a target of racial prejudice, but Khalfani said he was not speaking for the president.

"He's under much constraint," Khalfani said. "But we can tell the truth and tell it like it is."

Khalfani said "Obama black lash" was evident in the poster, which is about 8 feet wide by 10 feet tall and shows Obama's face superimposed over that of Heath Ledger, who won an Academy Award posthumously for his portrayal of the Joker in the Batman sequel "The Dark Knight."

Obama's face on the poster has the same blackened eyes and smeared red lipstick that Ledger made famous in the movie. Below Obama's face is the word "socialism" in large, black letters.

Moore declined to be interviewed but released a statement saying he put up the poster to show his displeasure with the direction of Obama's eight-month-old administration, particularly on financial issues.

"This country is going to hell in a handbag, and the current administration is making things irreversibly worse," said Moore, who identified himself as a Libertarian.

This isn't the first time Moore has used the Main Street side of his building to make a political statement. Earlier this year, the city dropped its claim that a large, yellow banner at Velvet that protested building a ballpark in Shockoe Bottom was illegal because it exceeded size limits outlined in Richmond's zoning ordinance.

Moore's club is awaiting a Nov. 9-10 state Alcoholic Beverage Control hearing on alleged violations. Last year, Moore was convicted of three misdemeanor charges related to having sex with a minor and another female at his apartment above the club, and filming it illegally.

There was little activity inside the club during yesterday's protest, with two people sitting at the bar while the speakers across the street chastised Moore.

The protest drew a mixed gathering, ranging from supporters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to a man carrying a "KKK recruitment" poster to a woman carrying a "Strippers 4 Obama" poster.

The curious workers from nearby offices who stopped to take in the scene included Lee Cliff of Richmond, who snapped some cell-phone pictures to post on a social-networking Web site.

"I don't agree with it, and I don't think it's right, but he has a right to express himself and do it," Cliff said. "Maybe the strip-club business isn't doing too well."