ANGELO ELIA
SENIOR REPORTER
One can claim most hip-hop artists have a problem with authority, often expressing distaste towards them in their music. But there’s a reason for this – rappers have been targeted, harassed and discriminated upon. It’s really the police who have a problem with hip-hop artists.
According to a YouTube video, retired New York Police Department officer, Derick Parker, said in a 2006 documentary Black and Blue: Legends of the Hip-Hop Cop that he began a task force called the hip-hop squad to investigate rappers for criminal activity. According to the documentary, hip-hop police kept famous rappers under surveillance – followed them, recorded their licence plate numbers and even their hotel itineraries. The documentary also showed Grammy-nominated rap artist, Fabolous, being targeted by the hip-hop police and was accused of being associated with jewellery robbers. Fabolous denied the allegation and Parker said no charges were laid and the investigation has been shelved.
According to an mtv.com article on Oct. 22, rap artist Lil’ Wayne is due for sentencing in February of 2010 for a one-year prison term after pleading guilty to a felony of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. Lil’ Wayne was arrested in New York, in 2007, and the article also reported his attorney saying Wayne was near the gun but that it wasn’t his. Another mtv.com article on Oct. 23 reported Wayne saying he was hassled and threatened by police. An Associated Press article on Oct. 21 on Wayne’s case included that the DNA analysis, which connected him to the weapon, is questionable. According to the AP article, Wayne’s DNA on the weapon was so small it had to be multiplied in the process just to test. The article also included a case in the U.K. where authorities temporarily stopped using the DNA method in 2007 after a judge questioned its accuracy. The article reported the case lead to acquitting a suspect in the 1998 terrorist bombing in Northern Ireland that killed 29 people.
In his documentary The Game: Life After The Math (2008), hip-hop artist Game said police wrongfully targeted him and his peers at a North Carolina mall, in 2005, where he said he was simply shopping and signing autographs for kids. The rapper said mall security started putting their hands on his little cousin after his cousin was slow to take off a Halloween mask he was wearing. Game told them to stop, saying he and his group would leave, but security called police and about twenty officers came to physically restrain and hassle them. Game said he told the police it was wrong and unconstitutional but the documentary showed the cops responding by roughing him up before tackling him to the ground and spraying him with mace. According to a related article on mtv.com, on Oct. 31, 2005, Game was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and released on a $500 bail.
These occurrences show the brutal truth of the way police have treated situations involving rappers – by unfairly targeting them in an unprofessional manner and blowing situations out of proportion. It is disturbing to know in this day and age a specific culture and social group is being targeted by authorities who abuse their powers. It is clearly discriminatory to have an exclusive task force solely focused against rap artists. To take extremes to target individuals to such a degree should be the crime.
It’s unfair how hip hop artists are targeted and treated by police. There are too many rappers serving long, unreasonable prison terms and charges, some cases can even be argued as self defence. Fabolous recently performed at a Hard Rock charity concert to help raise money and awareness to help ill children for the children’s miracle network hospitals. There are a lot of rappers who help contribute to the community. Hopefully Fabolous wins the grammy that he’s nominated for.
I’m not saying they aren’t targeted, but they must do something to recive some attention. If they are squeaky clean then the cops will have nothing to target a specific person. Just because they are famous does not mean they are above law.
Everyone should be treated fairly by the law, but hip hop artists are treated unfairly. Hip hop artists are followed almost everywhere they go regardless if they have a clean record or not, these type of police always follow them and at times instigate and provoke situations. For example in the situation with Game, mall security put their hands on a child and the police used excessive force on Game and his entourage, which makes no sense as the rapper was doing his best to avoid the situation.
If rappers are so unfairly targeted – when’s the last time will smith was arrested?
Wait a minute… you mean to tell me that the police are targeting a specified group of individuals and pursuing them in direct violation to the very laws they are sworn to uphold? Good Lord, Stop the Presses! Say it ain’t so, Willis!
You’d think we’d have heard about such fascism sooner! KRS-ONE’s only built he’s damn career on speaking in rhythm about the fact that the police, in their current incarnation, act as little more than modern day Overseers of our world-wide cotton farm.
“You need a little clarity?
Check the similarity!
The overseer rode around the plantation
The officer is off patrolling all the nation
The overseer could stop you what you’re doing
The officer will pull you over just when he’s pursuing
The overseer had the right to get ill
And if you fought back, the overseer had the right to kill
The officer has the right to arrest
And if you fight back they put a hole in your chest!
(Woop!) They both ride horses
After 400 years, I’ve _got_ no choices!
The police them have a little gun
So when I’m on the streets, I walk around with a bigger one
(Woop-woop!) I hear it all day
Just so they can run the light and be upon their way” – KRS-ONE
Now I don’t mean to mock you completely… you bring up an excellent point, sir. However, isn’t it time we stop looking at what is clearly a long history of abuse against the working and middle class citizens of the world as separate, isolated incidents? How many unjustified shootings of North American Citizens is it going to take? I know it’s not entirely your fault you don’t connect such dots in this piece; your editors have their jobs (and steady diets of government cheese) for the sole fact that they are training you to unwittingly maintain the status-quo by muddying the truth with alleged “objectivity”.
But hey, Freedom of speech always was an illusion.
“There can never really be justice on Stolen Land” – KRS-ONE
FREE LIL’ WAYNE