As you know by now, Beyonce’s support of the Black Panthers during her performance of “Formation” at the Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show and the video left bitter a taste in some people’s mouths, so much so, that a boycott was planned earlier this week on Feb. 16th at NFL HQ (which bombed, by the way.)
But it seems some people are still upset about the performance, and when I say “people,” I mean some police officers, who think Bey’s support for Black Panthers is a threat to cops everywhere with an “anti-police” message. The Miami stop of the “Formation Tour” on April 26 is already sold out, but a Miami police union voted in favor of boycotting Bey’s show in the city that night.
According to The Huffington Post, President of Miami Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #20, Javier Ortiz, wrote in a press release, “The Miami Fraternal Order of Police has voted to have all law enforcement officers boycott Beyoncé’s concert which is being held at the Miami Marlins Stadium on Wednesday, April 26, 2016,” Ortiz said in a statement. “The fact that Beyoncé used this year’s Super Bowl to divide Americans by promoting the Black Panthers and her antipolice message shows how she does not support law enforcement.”
Ortiz explains that he didn’t watch the Super Bowl performance “out of respect for our profession,” and goes on to mention that he had “mistakenly” seen the “Formation” video, which features an African-American boy dancing in front of police in riot gear as well as Beyoncé sitting on top of a sinking New Orleans police car. Ortiz also suggested police forces across the country do the same when she comes to the rest of her scheduled cities.
However, Miami Police Department spokesman Maj. Delrish Moss spoke out against Ortiz’s proposed boycott, saying that they did not speak for the police department or the city of Miami, and that Marlins Park (the venue she’s set to perform at) will be protected by police presence.“Right now the union president has his First Amendment right to say whatever he wants to say, but that doesn’t always translate to reality. As far as we see, there’s no indication that anything that is said there will translate into police officers not working the job,” Moss said told HuffPost.
I guess no one suggested Ortiz and his lodge to watch the documentary “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” on PBS Wednesday night? Maybe if they did, they would be better informed.
