Article: Man Wears "Cocaine Snowman" T-Shirt to Court

File this story under, "Deserves What They Get."

Patrick Powell stood before a judge this week charged with murder, slumping his shoulders as though trying to hide.

But clearly visible and adding to the questions surrounding Daniel Columbo’s stabbing was the frowning snowman T-shirt the Milford teen wore, part of a shirt line hip-hop artist Young Jeezy and his record label Def Jam began distributing this year to promote an album.

"You wouldn’t even think anything of it, really," said Ashland School Resource Officer Luann Tomaso. "It looks like a cute T-shirt if you just glance at it."

The rapper hinted the shirt meant trouble in an MTV interview this fall, saying the snowman symbolized someone was a "young hustler," a "cool dude," and a "gangsta."

But the real symbols of cocaine and drug dealing have started to sink in for many as they listen to the rapper’s music and learn he is a former drug dealer.

In Jeezy’s hit "Icy," he rapped, "In my hood they call me Jeezy da Snowman/Ya get it? Get it? Jeezy da Snowman/I’m iced out, plus I got snow, man."

Idiot

Free speech is great. Everyone should be able to say and wear whatever they want, as long as it doesn't incite violence. And having the freedom to do whatever you want includes the freedom to do something stupid. Wearing a snowman t-shirt is like wearing a t-shirt that says "arrest me, I think drugs are cool."

I find this to be a sad development, because one of my favorite t-shirts is the They Might Be Giants snowman, warming his hands over a pile of burning money.

Existential

I've been stopped on the street while wearing it and told what a great "gangsta" t-shirt it is. Which, if you've ever seen me or They Might Be Giants, is ridiculous.

White

So I avoid wearing my TMBG Snowman, simply because our culture has once again taken something innocuous and interesting and turned it into something crappy and base. Sigh.