Cop Killer Controversy

"Cop Killer" is a song by American heavy metal band Body Count. Released on the group's 1992 self-titled debut album, the song was written two years earlier, and was partially influenced by " Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads.

The song's lyrics about "cop killing" were criticized by President of the United States George H. W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle. Ice-T has called "Cop Killer" a " protest record". He eventually recalled the album and rereleased it without the song.

Background

Ice-T, who wrote the song's lyrics, referred to "Cop Killer" as a "protest record", stating that the song is " ungin the first person as a character who is fed up with police brutality". He has credited the Talking Heads song " Psycho Killer" as an inspiration for the song. "Cop Killer" was written in 1990 and had been performed live several times, including at the 1991 Lollapalooza tour, before it was recorded in a studio.

The recorded version mentions Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates and Rodney King, a black motorist whose beating by Los Angeles Police Department officers had been caught on videotape. Shortly after the release of the '' Body Count'' album, a jury acquitted the officers and riots erupted in South Central Los Angeles. Soon after the riots, the Dallas Police Association and the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas launched a campaign to force Warner Bros. Records to withdraw the album.

Reaction

Following its release, the song was met with opposition, with critics ranging from President George H. W. Bush to various law enforcement agencies, with demands for the song's withdrawal from commercial availability, citing concerns of promoting anti-police sentiment. Ice-T defended the song's lyrics, as did other proponents who did not believe that the song posed any risk and supported its release and sale.

Criticism and controversy

The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas called for a boycott of all Time Warner products in order to secure the removal of the song and album from stores. Within a week, they were joined by police organizations across the nation. Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Lloyd Bentsen and Al D'Amato protested the release of the song by canceling their planned cameo appearances in the 1993 Warner Bros. Pictures political film '' Dave''.

Some critics argued that the song could cause crime and violence. Dennis R. Martin, the former president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, argued:

Defense of the song

Others defended the album and cited the fact that Ice-T had sympathetically portrayed a police officer in the 1991 film ''New Jack City''. Many people from the music world and other fields were supportive of the song. For example, in response to Dennis Martin's criticism, Mark S. Hamm and Jeff Ferrell argued:

Ice-T stated of the song, "I'm singing in the first person as a character who is fed up with police brutality. I ain't never killed no cop. I felt like it a lot of times. But I never did it. If you believe that I'm a cop killer, you believe David Bowie is an astronaut."

In a July 1992 editorial in ''The Wall Street Journal'' defending his company's involvement with the song, Time Warner co-CEO Gerald M. Levin repeated this defense, writing that rather than "finding ways to silence the messenger", critics and listeners should be "heeding the anguished cry contained in his message".

The National Black Police Association opposed the boycott of Time Warner and the attacks on "Cop Killer", identifying police brutality as the cause of much anti-police sentiment, and proposed the creation of independent civilian review boards "to scrutinize the actions of our law enforcement officers" as a way of ending the provocations that caused artists such as Body Count "to respond to actions of police brutality and abuse through their music.... Many individuals of the law enforcement profession do not want anyone to scrutinize their actions, but want to scrutinize the actions of others."

Further controversy and decision to withdraw song

Over the next month, controversy against the band grew. Vice President Quayle branded "Cop Killer" "obscene", and President Bush publicly denounced any record company that would release such a product. ''Body Count'' was removed from the shelves of a retail store in Greensboro, North Carolina after local police had told the management that they would no longer respond to any emergency calls at the store if it continued to sell the album.

In July 1992, the New Zealand police commissioner unsuccessfully attempted to prevent an Ice-T concert in Auckland, arguing that "anyone who comes to this country preaching in obscene terms the killing of police should not be welcome here", before taking ''Body Count'' and Warner Bros. Records to the Indecent Publications Tribunal in an effort to have it banned under New Zealand's Indecent Publications Act 1963. This was the first time in 20 years that a sound recording had been brought before the censorship body and the first case involving popular music. The tribunal found the song "Cop Killer" to be "not exhortatory", saw the album as displaying "an honest purpose" and found ''Body Count'' not indecent.

At the July 1992 Time Warner annual shareholders' meeting, actor Charlton Heston, who was a minor Time Warner shareholder, addressed the crowd and recited lyrics from both "Cop Killer" and another song from ''Body Count'', "KKK Bitch", which namechecked PMRC head Tipper Gore, in an attempt to embarrass company executives into dropping the album. In his autobiography, Heston wrote that he considered "KKK Bitch" "even more disgusting" and that he had tried to persuade the National Organization for Women to join a protest against its mentions of sex with 12-year-old girls, but that the group did not show interest.

At a Beverly Hills press conference to announce a change in policy, Ice-T began by presenting almost 40 minutes of a video documentary on the civil-rights movement before he spoke. He announced the withdrawal the song from future copies of the album. Time Warner announced that it would recall copies with "Cop Killer" included, which sparked panic buying of the album.

Death threats were sent to Warner Bros. Records executives, and some stockholders threatened to disassociate themselves from the company. According to his 1994 book ''The Ice Opinion: Who Gives a Fuck?'', Ice-T decided to remove the song from the album of his own volition. Ice-T left the label in 1993, following additional disputes over his solo album ''Home Invasion''. He stated: "When I started out, arnernever censored us. Everything we did, we had full control over. But what happened was when the cops moved on ''Body Count'', they issued pressure on the corporate division of Warner Bros., and that made the music division, they couldn't out-fight 'em in the battle, so even when you're in a business with somebody who might not wanna censor you, economically people can put restraints on 'em and cause 'em to be afraid. I learned that lesson in there, that you're never really safe as long as you're connected to any big corporation's money."

Commentary on the decision

'' The Source'' magazine, which was central to American hip-hop at the time, dubbed the decision "the beginning of the end of rap music", viewing it as a gateway to widespread censorship of hip-hop. An editorial by Reginald Dennis cast doubt on Ice-T's statement that it was his decision to withdraw the song. ''The Source'' became more critical of Ice-T in subsequent months, writing that he had avoided an interview on the subject in October and then awarding him the "Ross Perot Award", which implied that he had withdrawn the song for business reasons. Ice-T responded by criticizing ''The Source'' in his song "It's On". In his 2011 autobiography, he wrote that ''Source'' magazine had constantly criticized him for his decision to remove the track.

Warner Bros. Records chairman Mo Ostin said in a 1994 interview with the ''Los Angeles Times'', " ime Warnergot so thin-skinned after the incident at the shareholders' meeting. In the end, Ice-T decided to leave because he could not allow tampering with his work. And I can't blame him, considering the climate." Expressing regret at the circumstances leading to Ice-T's departure, Ostin praised him as "a terrific artist who spoke the truth".

Later years

The studio version of "Cop Killer" has not been rereleased, although a live version of the song appears on the 2005 release ''Body Count: Live in LA''. According to Body Count guitarist Ernie C, the controversy over the song "still lingers for us, even now. I'll try to book clubs and the guy I'm talking to will mention it and I'll think to myself, 'Man, that was 17 years ago', but I meet a lot of bands who ask me about it too and I'm real respected by other artists for it. But it's a love/hate thing. Ice gets it too, even though he plays a cop on TV now on '' Law & Order SVU''."

Track listing

References

External links

Ice T interview
on the subject

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1992 songs
Body Count (band) songs
Sire Records singles
Warner Records singles
Protest songs
Songs about death
Songs about police officers
Songs about police brutality
Criticism of police brutality
Law enforcement controversies in the United States
Obscenity controversies in music
African-American-related controversies
Police brutality in the United States
Songs about racism and xenophobia
Speed metal songs
Songs written by Ice-T
1992 singles