Xavier Boatner
campus editor
Xavier.boatner@my.tccd.edu
A local pizzeria created a gory-looking pizza display and student reactions aren’t positive.
In wake of the killer’s media resurgence following the debut of the Netflix TV series, “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” Capital Pizza, located in Lubbock, decided to use serial murderer and cannibal Jeffery Dahmer as inspiration for their special Halloween pizza exhibit.
“The pizza was inappropriate at best, but if I’m honest I don’t think the place should be punished per se,” NE student Khari Pollum said.
Pollum said despite this, he would rather avoid the restaurant and feels the outrage the pizza sparked is deserved.
“I won’t be eating there based on the bad taste in my mouth the pizza already gave me, but I don’t feel any justice is being unserved,” Pollum said.
NE student David Jackson said Dahmer’s victims may not think highly of the situation and questioned what could have led to the creation of the display.
“The victims probably don’t feel too good about it,” Jackson said. “Maybe the pizzeria made it because it was provocative. Maybe they wanted to make it for a little bit of a publicity thing.”
Jackson said the restaurant should move on from the pizza incident and that it most likely wasn’t done to hurt anyone.
“I don’t think it’d hurt their business,” Jackson said. “It’s a little in bad taste but I don’t think it’d stop people from going. I don’t think they should face repercussions. People do dumb stuff all the time. It was in bad taste, but they probably didn’t think anything of it.”
NE student Wilder Odem said the pizza may not have been a great idea and could be off-putting for potential customers.
“I feel like it is in bad taste,” Odem said. “I feel if you have a little group of friends and you’re going to do a get-together maybe it’d be fun to see. Still, even then, I mean, like, wow – I don’t know how I feel about that.”
Odem said the victims aren’t likely to show serious concern over the pizza and that they’d most likely ignore it.
“I think they have lots of other things on their plate,” Odem said. “It was a tragedy and I’m pretty sure they look and scoff at it. But I think it’d be silly to run over it and go after it.”
Odem said he understands why the pizzeria chose Dahmer as inspiration for the pizza but felt they weren’t in the right.
“I know that there’s been a craze recently about Dahmer,” Odem said. “They made a Netflix special or something like that. I feel like that was in poor taste too. Frankly, I’m not one for memorializing or monetizing these people. Especially the monetization – I think it was not a good idea.”
Odem said the controversy surrounding the pizza could provide short-term success but long-term financial struggle for the restaurant.
“I imagine it would hurt their sales,” Odem said. “I feel like there were people who probably liked the idea, were insensitive to the topic or were also a part of that bandwagon who’d look at that and go ‘Oh I want to try that!’. Personally, I wouldn’t be the guy to do it but I’m sure there are some people who maybe that brings to the restaurant as well.”
Odem said he believes the pizzeria’s reputation probably won’t recover anytime soon.
“I think the repercussions are obviously the infamy that maybe they now face,” Odem said. “I don’t think they legally did anything wrong, you know freedom of speech and all of that. But I do think it was definitely in poor taste and if they’re going to be slammed for it then so be it.”
