Real or Satire?

As seen on a bus shelter or other type of kiosk in New York City, according to Twitter user @mtracey:


@mtracey posted it with these comments:

Soviet-style NYPD propaganda poster. I'm legitimately flabbergasted. Note the stern visage of Emperor Bloomberg.

Responses to his tweet argued that it's meant to satirize the NYPD and Bloomberg. Given the egregious typo in the headline, I think that's likely the case.

The only thing that gives me pause is that it's inside an official (read: paid for) poster frame, but I guess that could be paid for by someone who cares enough to post the very best. Or maybe they've hijacked it.

What do you think?

Postscript: My design thoughts on the poster: Assuming it's a satirical poster, this is an amusing use of the Trajan font in the headline (that's the one used on almost every movie poster). But the designer needed to do more to understand how the poster would be used when establishing its margins. The NYPD footer and particularly the headline are much too close to the frame, which undermines their visual impact.