I saw the halftime show and already registered my thoughts regarding her performance:
"Police place blame for shootings on . . . Beyonce?" by Niraj Chokshi Washington Post February 18, 2016
At first, Sheriff Robert Arnold said he had no explanation for why shots were fired outside his home in Rutherford County, Tenn., on Monday night — except perhaps for an undercurrent of anti-police sentiment in America.
Maybe it has to do with the record number of killings (one whitey, but #WhiteLivesDon'tMatter) when police have never been safer.
Maybe that is why crime is dropping, huh?
‘‘You do make people mad when you do your job; so that’s the only thing I could think of,’’ Arnold said at a news conference Tuesday, according to edited video of his comments posted by the Daily News Journal.
But then another possibility came to mind, and Arnold blamed Beyonce.
‘‘With everything that happened since the Super Bowl. . . that’s what I’m thinking: Here’s another target on law enforcement,’’ he said.
Talk about jumping the shark and talking with your head up your ass.
He went on: ‘‘You have Beyonce’s video and that’s kind of bled over into other things, it seems.’’
This is such diversionary crap, and look at the media focus on it.
In a subsequent statement, Arnold said that his remarks ‘‘reflect the violence and senseless killing of seven deputies in the U.S. since the show aired. My comments are an observation of the violence that has occurred but in no way is meant to offend anyone.’’
Since the Super Bowl, five U.S. police officers have been fatally shot, according to the non-profit Officer Down Memorial Page.
The hits keep coming for Beyonce, whose new music video and Super Bowl halftime-show performance continue to attract the ire of law enforcement officers and officials who say she dialed up the hate and put police in danger. In particular, they say, her Super Bowl show — watched by nearly 120 million Americans — carried a dangerous anti-police message.
This nation is becoming more fa$ci$t all the time.
A number of police officers and officials and their supporters took to social media the night of the Super Bowl to voice their displeasure with Beyonce — emotions channeled by public officials and police groups in the days since.
Honestly, they already have an oversized voice in our society so this complaining just makes them seem arrogant and totalitarian.
Yup, cops can do no wrong!
‘‘It’s inciting bad behavior,’’ National Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Jonathan Thompson told The Washington Post this week. ‘‘Art is one thing, but yelling fire in a crowded theater is an entirely different one.’’
You guys are so far out there, it is almost as if the kerfuffle is being used to direct attention away from the more-than-two-a-day state murders in this country.
On the night of the Super Bowl, Thompson said, the group was hosting a watch party at the J.W. Marriott in Washington for members in town for an annual meeting. Reminded by one member that Beyonce was about to perform her controversial new song, ‘‘Formation,’’ Thompson said he asked the party attendees if they wanted to turn off the volume.
‘‘I got an overwhelming response from the audience: ‘We don’t want to hear it,’’’ he recalled. ‘‘And some of the language was a bit salty.’’
And so, he said, the audio was muted and members of the association turned their backs on Beyonce’s performance.
I'm wondering who was at the party out there.
For the record, I couldn't hear it where I was. I just saw it. Don't want to see the or hear the video, either, but that's just me. I'll leave that analysis to others.
Since then, the sheriff’s group has described the show as ‘‘anti-police’’ in public statements and even sent a letter to the NFL complaining of its decision to air it.
They are not aware of the demographics of football or those who watch ESPN, are they
Thompson declined to share details of the letter’s contents but said he is convinced that the NFL knew about the performance and its message and allowed it to proceed regardless.
‘‘At this point, I think the NFL had a serious error in judgment,’’ he said.
Oh, it wouldn't be the first time -- or the last.
There are certain narratives that must be maintained for the ma$$ media illusion that is society to continue.
Police who ‘‘make errors of judgment’’ should be held accountable, Thompson said, but Beyonce’s went too far.
Except the police are NOT held accountable by other authority! That's the PROBLEM!
He and others take issue with the imagery in the ‘‘Formation’’ video and Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance of the song.
The video opens with the singer standing atop a half-submerged New Orleans police cruiser, a recurring image throughout. Other related symbols periodically flash on screen: Sirens; a jacket that says ‘‘POLICE’’ on it; graffiti that reads ‘‘stop shooting us.’’
At one point, a hooded boy dances in front of a line of riot gear-clad officers who later join him in raising their hands — an apparent allusion to Michael Brown, who some initially believed had his hands up to surrender when he was shot dead by a police officer. (That version of events was later challenged by federal authorities.)
At the end of the video, the police cruiser fully submerges in the water, taking Beyonce with it.
Make of it what you will.
In her Super Bowl show, Beyonce and her back-up dancers wore costumes reminiscent of the Black Panther Party, whose members projected black empowerment and sometimes committed violent acts during the Civil Rights era. The dancers at one point formed an ‘‘X’’ with their bodies, a possible allusion to Malcolm X.
Problem is, Malcolm turned towards peace and reconciliation with whites; that is why the FBI contracted black Muslims to kill him.
As for the clergy of today, well, they back up the cops!
How much has changed in 50 years, 'eh?
New Jersey’s largest state troopers union voiced its ‘‘shock and disgust’’ at the performance in a letter sent to NFL officials and published online by the the New Jersey Star Ledger last week.
‘‘We call on the NFL to separate itself from that message,’’ State Troopers Fraternal Association of N.J. President Christopher Burgos wrote in the letter addressed to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodall.
Then they better discipline some players, too.
Burgos noted the 1973 murder of state trooper Werner Foerster at the hands of the woman law enforcement refers to as Black Panther Party member Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur. In 2013, Chesimard became the first woman named to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted Terrorist list.
They are dragging up a murder from 1973 (isn't she living in Cuba now? Maybe Obama can bring her back with him)?
You know, while you are at it why not mention Fred Hampton, too?
‘‘It cannot be denied that the black panthers have assassinated officers and troopers who were upholding the constitution and rule of law, keeping everyone in our society, regardless of color or creed safe,’’ he wrote.
And it also can not be denied that the U.S. government, at all levels, has assassinated people -- and continues to do so long after the Black Panthers are dead.
Separately, Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clark Jr. compared Beyonce’s attire to the white robes of the Ku Klux Klan on the Fox Business Channel last week.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
And it wasn’t just law enforcement officers who were offended.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called the Super Bowl performance ‘‘outrageous’’ and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said in a Facebook post that it was ‘‘just one more example of how acceptable it has become to be anti-police.’’
I'm not anti-police; however, I am anti-asshole and there are two of them.
Oh, btw, Rudy, who told you the WTC towers were going to collapse that day and why weren't you all on the 23rd floor of WTC 7 like you should have been?
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Yes, let's make it a divisive political issue even though it shouldn't be:
"Democrats should stop cop-bashing" by Meredith Warren Contributor February 18, 2016
MUCH OF the modern Democratic Party playbook is built on gaining votes by stoking the perception of social and economic injustice among Americans.
Although the traditional focus is mostly on income inequality, this year’s crop of candidates is weaving in another angle: criminal justice. Namely, that the laws of our country are being enforced unfairly and unevenly, led by a police force that’s out to get everyday Americans.
This message was on full display in the most recent Democratic debate, when Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont deftly brought the two themes together in his two-minute opening statement.
According to Sanders, Wall Street billionaires have insulated themselves from prosecution by way of a corrupt campaign finance system. The rich enjoy a get-out-of-jail-free card, while the country is “spending $80 billion a year locking up fellow Americans. [People] see kids getting arrested for marijuana, getting in prison, getting a criminal record, while they see executives on Wall Street who pay billions of dollars in settlements and get no prosecution at all. No criminal records for them.”
On the Racial Justice issue page of his website, in a section titled “physical violence” that is “perpetrated by the state,” Sanders charges that “law enforcement officers have become disconnected from the communities they are sworn to protect.” He further argues that police need to be demilitarized “so they don’t look and act like invading armies,” and he encourages increased civilian oversight of police departments.
Sounds like reasonable half-measures.
Related: Goodbye, grenade launchers: Mass. towns return military equipment to feds
She seems politically out of step, doesn't she?
It’s fair for Sanders and others to debate the limits of appropriate police power as part of the post-Ferguson world in which we live. Incidents of police brutality should neither be ignored nor tolerated, and having civilian oversight of any public entity is never bad.
But Sanders and fellow Democrats take it a step too far by demonizing police to make a broader case against a system that is rigged against common citizens.
She conveniently ignores that the "tough-on-crime" policies that have led to the current mess were begun under Democrats like Marty O'Malley and Bill Clinton.
This is a fake argument so that the real problem of state tyranny isn't addressed and we are stuck in a cul-de-sac of politics.
Police officers already have a job that’s difficult enough. They shouldn’t be used as political pawns in a quest for social justice. It is disgraceful that in the nearly 15 years since the 9/11 attacks, police have gone from being viewed as modern day heroes, deserving of our respect, to overzealous “invading armies” deserving of distrust.
Yup, the poor cops.
Officers are increasingly being targeted on the streets, including an incident in Dorchester last week when a man allegedly refused to drop a revolver he aimed at Boston Police officers.
See: Shot Dead in Dorchester
Yet it’s law enforcement that Democrats routinely single out for using violent tactics, racial profiling, and for excessive militarism. Politicians are calling for body cameras to be worn by police, but not to protect them. Body cameras are to audit cops’ every move in the streets. And, in some places, like at our borders and in so-called “sanctuary cities” for illegal immigrants, politicians are actively tying the hands behind the back of police trying to enforce the law.
Bo$ton is one, and I'm sure the illegal immigrant workforce is contributing to the rising wealth inequality.
This trend of making police officers the enemy has got to stop.
When they stop killing 2 innocent Americans a day, 'kay?
At a time when respect for law enforcement has eroded to such a low point, promoting a sense of distrust of police is a bad talking point for Democrats to push. In fact, it’s downright dangerous. After all, if the would-be leaders of the free world are telling you you’re getting locked up for no good reason, why should you respect the men and women trying to enforce the laws?
A candidate like Bernie Sanders should aspire to a better legacy than being responsible for that.
Meredith Warren is a Republican political analyst and consultant.
And there she is regularly in the Globe's op-ed pages.
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