Organizers of Beyoncé’s April concert in Tampa, Fla., are having a hard time getting off-duty cops to work security — and the reason is obvious.
The singer has courted controversy with the pro-Black Panther theme of her Super Bowl halftime performance and a Black Lives Matter meme in her latest music video.
The video’s closing scenes feature a kid in a black hoodie dancing before a row of cops — then stretching out his arms, presumably awaiting gunfire. Then the officers put their hands up, and the camera cuts to a brick wall with the graffiti, “Stop Shooting Us.”
Fine; Queen B can afford to do as she pleases. But when you send a message, you’re inviting the rest of the world to send its own messages right back.
Her halftime stunt has won praise or condemnation from the usual suspects; police unions across the country are calling on members to boycott her shows.
And Tampa cops apparently aren’t eager to collect some off-duty pay for providing concert security.
Tampa PD spokesman Steve Hegarty insists, “We’re going to staff [the concert] because we have a responsibility to do that regardless of how controversial it might be, who the artist might be or the politician might be. . . We’ve still got plenty of time to fill those slots.”
They’ll undoubtedly secure the event because, as Hegarty said, that’s what the police do. When the show does go on, Bey could show some class with a simple “Thank you.”