THREE BILLBOARDS, FROM FICTION TO REALITY

1. USA, FLORIDA, MIAMI

Activist group places 'three billboards outside Miami' to call out Rubio on gun control

02/16/18 – The Hill

An activist group is trolling Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) with a “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"-style protest urging him to act on gun control.

Activist group Avaaz placed the billboards, which are on the sides of three trucks, outside Rubio’s headquarters in Miami in the days following Wednesday's shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead and at least 14 injured.

“Slaughtered in school, and still no gun control?” the billboards read. “How come, Marco Rubio?”

In the Oscar-nominated film "Three Billboards," a grieving mother rents out the title objects to call attention to local police's handling of her daughter’s rape and murder.

Rubio said on the Senate floor Thursday that gun control would not have prevented the shooting because potential shooters “will find a way to get the gun to do it.”

Avaaz President Emma Ruby-Sachs said in a statement that the billboards are in response to Rubio having “never attempted” to reform the state’s “notoriously lax gun laws.” The suspected shooter reportedly purchased the AR-15 used in Wednesday’s shooting legally a year ago.

“Today we take the streets asking ourselves: how come, Rubio?” she said. “The Senator has taken fire across the country for his toothless response to the shooting, calling it 'inexplicable'. We call that 'inexcusable.’”

Ruby-Sachs also noted that Rubio is “one of the highest recipients of [National Rifle Association] NRA contributions and has received an A+ rating from the NRA.”

Democratic lawmakers have upped their calls for gun control in response to the shooting.

2. UNITED KINGDOM, LONDON 

Grenfell activists use Three Billboards protest to highlight lack of progress

Justice 4 Grenfell group parades billboards around London to keep tower blaze, which killed 71 people, on national conscience - 15 Feb 2018  The Guardian
Campaigners have taken inspiration from the Oscar-nominated drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to highlight what they say has been “a lack of progress” in the Grenfell Tower fire investigation.
Members of the Justice 4 Grenfell group paraded billboards emblazoned with the words “71 dead”, “And still no arrests?”, “How Come?” around central London locations in an attempt to keep victims of last June’s tower block blaze “in the national conscience”.
The protest mirrors one carried out in the film, which stars Frances McDormand as a mother seeking to force local law enforcement into properly investigating the murder of her teenage daughter.
In a statement posted on the Justice 4 Grenfell website, the group accuses the government of similar inaction in their investigation into the blaze. “Eight months on from the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower, the issue is being ignored,” it reads. “71 people died in the Grenfell Tower. And still no arrests. And still 297 flammable towers. And still hundreds of survivors are homeless. And still they are not represented on the inquiry. And still there is no justice.”

The billboards, which were mounted on lorries, were spotted at venues including St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster.

Speaking to Vice at the gathering, the Justice 4 Grenfell campaigner Yvette Williams said that she hoped the billboards would help keep the incident in the public eye. “We were told that even as the public inquiry is ongoing, there was going to be an interim report by Easter,” she said. “Now that’s not happening. We want the truth. We want prosecutions. None of that is happening. We think they’re playing with time, hoping that the story will be downplayed.”