Clothing Store Polices Its Racks and Recalls 3 T-Shirts

Worried about sending the wrong message to youngsters in an increasingly violent world, a West Coast clothing store chain has pulled from its racks T-shirts that seem to endorse criminal behavior.

Accompanied by officers from Santa Clarita’s Anti-Gang Task Force, the chief executive officer of the Hot Topic clothing store toured its Valencia Town Center outlet and ordered a recall of three different shirt designs.

The recall fulfilled a pledge that the executive, Orv Madden, made last week to pull any shirts found to be offensive. He said the company condemns gang violence and tries not to carry items that promote drugs or violence.

“If something does slip by our review committee, we want to know about it immediately,” Madden said.

The Montclair-based Hot Topic chain caters predominantly to teen-agers. Its trendy clothes focus primarily on music groups, but the stores also carry earrings, sunglasses, buttons and other merchandise.

The shirts pulled from the shelves Wednesday featured images of:

* A man with a bottle of white-out correction fluid, with the application brush removed and the word “Rave” above it.

“We thought it was a pretty good social statement--using white-out to erase graffiti. (But) the officers informed us there is a problem with kids sniffing the stuff,” Madden said.

* A man holding a sack full of items and removing a ski mask from his face.

* A man standing in front of a black ball with “25!” written on it and connected to his leg by a chain. On the back is a broken shackle with “25 to Life” inscribed on it. The phrase refers to the California penalty for murder.

Cecilia Burda, chairwoman of the task force, and Sgt. Carl Deeley, head of the Sheriff’s Department unit assigned to Santa Clarita gang and graffiti problems, said they were “very impressed” by Madden’s response to their concerns about the shirts.

“They took it off the rack right then and there,” Burda said. “I was shocked.”

“We don’t want to be known as the dress police,” Deeley said. “Kids should not be judged on what they wear. They should be judged on their actions. But, the way you dress now can get you stabbed, shot or beaten up. And these are glamorizing illegal activities.”

Hot Topic pulled the shirts from the Valencia store Wednesday and has already removed the “25 to Life” shirts from the entire chain. Madden said the other shirts will be pulled from the remaining stores during the next few days.

With Hot Topic carrying 400 different shirt styles and about 6,000 items overall, Madden said it can be difficult to catch double-meanings on merchandise.

Officials said the anti-gang task force plans to talk with other shops in the Valencia Town Center that carry the “25 to Life” shirt.

“I think it’s only fair. We talked with Hot Topic, then we walk six stores down and there’s the same shirt,” Burda said.