SAVANNAH, Ga. -- On Monday morning, Bar Bar posted a response to the recent backlash they have received regarding a sign posted outside their bar over the weekend.
A photo of the message on the sign shows it said, "We like our beer like we like our violence, DOMESTIC." In response, the bar posted this on their Facebook page:
To everybody who has a problem with the sign that was put up Friday night and have never been to, or won't return to the Bar Bar: How about instead of wasting your time whining about a sign at a bar you take your TIME and MONEY and DONATE to SAFE Shelter! Stop the Violence by DOING something......not whining about it!"
WSAV, 11Alive's NBC affiliate sister station in Savannah, reports the controversial sign in the window of a popular Savannah bar has people lashing out over social media. A Savannah woman is speaking out on behalf of victims of domestic violence.
"I was very upset," Cheryl Branch of Safe Shelter, Inc. in Savannah says.
When Branch read the message she says was displayed at Bar Bar, she saw years of pain flash by, from helping victims of domestic violence at Safe Shelter.
"I have 18 years of really bad stuff in my head," she says. "I think it was just really poor judgement and bad taste."
Her staff members sent her the photo.
"Particularly on the heels of the Lauren Smart trial, the two shootings we had in Georgetown, as much domestic violence has been in the news, and then to see a sign." She feels such a message has the potential to be damaging for domestic violence survivors.
So, she took to Yelp to post a review of the bar. In an email response to Branch from David Thorne, Bar Bar owner, he says the sign was meant as a joke. He wrote: "It is obvious that you are reactionary, oversensitive, and can't recognize the First Amendment rights of our staff."
"I'm not saying that we should have censorship or anything like that, but I just think you have a responsibility to the public as far as what you're putting up there," Branch says.
In the email, the owner says his bar had no intention of promoting domestic violence, and he would not have approved the sign but a female staff member wrote it without asking.
Others who saw the sign posted things on Facebook like, "Not only was that sign extremely distasteful, it also made you look completely unoriginal. It's been done before with horrendous results." Another comment reads, "It's not a joke domestic violence is tragic and ruins lives."
"What if a victim was walking by and saw it?" Branch questions.
By Saturday night, the sign was gone. Branch is glad, but her message of caution in alluding to violence stands.
"I understand sarcasm and satire and all that. I don't see any of that in that. To me, it was just bad taste," she says.
WSAV reached out to Thorne for a direct comment, but still has not heard back.
