LBREPORT.com reader photo

An LBREPORT.com reader spotted what took place along with some police activity at the time and emailed us photos below (thank you).

We contacted the Long Beach Police Department on Friday (July 19) about what happened. LBPD Public Information Officer Marlene Arrona said the man was cited for vandalism.

(Photo right from LBREPORT.com reader)

We remained puzzled by all of this and pursued the story.

Meanwhile, we received a call from Tracy Kittinger, the owner of the popular 49'rs Tavern basically across the street from the billboard on Pacific Coast Highway. Ms. Kittinger described what had taken place and said she was likewise puzzled by all the commotion...and mentioned that the man who put up the image was at her tavern and chatting with her. We asked to put him on the phone...and he spoke with us.

The man identified himself as Pierre Douaire (photo right from his Facebook page). Mr. Douaire said he is a teacher in art history at a French university and an artist. Through accented English [considerably better than our French], Mr. Douaire indicated that the image he displayed is meant to convey the message that when one uses a gun, the shooter is shooting himself (in other words, an anti-gun violence message.)

Mr. Douaire said the image is of a famous gun: the one used in 1914 to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo (heir to the then-Austro-Hungarian Empire), an event which ignited WW I. He noted that guns have been used in America to shoot Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy and singers John Lennon and Tupac Shakur. "If you kill yourself, it is a personal suicide, but if [everyone] in a big country uses guns, it is national suicide," he said. "When you use a gun at the end, you shoot yourself."

Mr. Douaire stressed that what he put up isn't permanent; it's not paint but paper that can be removed, he said, and thus he reasons it's not vandalism, just art, not some permanent defacement.

Although LongBeachReport.com is (we believe) first among local media to report this story locally, it's already made network TV news in France. On July 19, the France 24 network carried a report (in French) visible by clicking here.

Mr. Douaire told us, and his Facebook page indicates, that he has displayed a similar reversed-barrel gun in New York (likewise using pieces of paper but showing the "Bonnie & Clyde" gun) and also attached balloons to the iconic Wall Street metal bull.

As of Friday morning (July 19), Mr. Douaire's self-exhibited work in Long Beach was still visible on PCH at Bellflower (just south of 7th St.)

Photo by Dan Halverson

We don't know what Clear Channel (which owns the billboard) thinks about all this or plans to do about it; we'll ask early next week and report what we learn.

And as a side note: If you plan to stop by the Pacific Coast Highway/Bellflower/7th St. area to see all this (it's still up as of Saturday morning July 20), Ms. Kittinger's 49'rs Tavern on PCH has excellent hamburgers and plenty of beers on a hot day.