Subscribe
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton told us how he really feels today in lieu of a shooting at a T.I. concert that left one man dead and several injured in New York City’s Irving Plaza. While doing so, he also exposed his troubling biases and a profound ignorance of Hip-Hop culture.

Speaking to WCBS, when asked about the investigation into the shooting, Bratton used the platform to berate Rap and Hip-Hop culture, instead of just answering the question.

“The crazy world of these so-called rap artists who are basically thugs that basically celebrate violence they did all their lives, and unfortunately that violence often times manifests itself during their performances, and that’s exactly what happened last evening,” said Bratton, adding, “We should be able to wrap it up very quickly.”

He then said, while referring to Bobby Shmurda’s arrest, “This [rap] world is not reformed.”

So now all rappers are thugs*?

Television actor turned rapper Drake, righteous Brooklyn MC Talib Kweli, or earnest white rapper Macklemore are just a few examples which clearly illustrate the Commish knows not what he speaketh of.

If the NYPD’s Commissioner, the top cop, the leader of the pack, is so flippant with his attitude about rappers, can you expect the officers who take orders from him to be anymore enlightened? Considering the people in the hood his cops are charged with protecting just may be rap fans (or rappers), it’s not a stretch to believe the boys in blue who rep his set will harbor similar animus towards the people they are sworn to protect.

If the cops can’t distinguish between thugs and rappers, no wonder they can’t tell the difference between a hard-working, law-abiding citizen and a criminal. Whether or not you’ve ever picked up a microphone to spit a hot 16 bar verse should play no part in being treated justly and fairly.

Bratton jumping out the window exposes the inherent biases displayed by way too many officers, and others who rest comfortably in the white power structure, that too often leads to a suspect stop-and-frisk, or an illegal chokehold that kills you.

Also, Bratton is clearly is out of touch. This is the same guy who last year said embraced the findings of the soundly panned Moynihan report from 1965, which basically blamed single-parent households for the deterioration of the Black family.

We’ll have to save the racism of victim blaming brown kids while white kids acting up (see: Molly overdoses) get sympathetic treatment for another editorial.

Now as far as the NYPD, who is to blame for their own filthy laundry? Recently, numerous high-ranking NYPD officers have taken early retirement thanks to the Feds investigating them for allegedly trading in illegal favors. Seems these cops would rather quit the force, and still get their pensions than be fired and held accountable for their moral bankruptcy. One cop even committed suicide about a week after speaking to the FBI.

Also, there are the cops who assaulted a former tennis star, arrested a man for a non-existent drug deal, launched online prostitution rings or arrested a mailman on bogus charges.

So tell us, Commissioner Bratton, are all cops morally bankrupt, duplicitous thugs, or nah?

Next time, try doing some proper research before making sweeping statements. Let’s start by tracking down who really is to blame for last night’s violence at an NYC music venue, the shooter.

Photo: AP Photo

*Also code word for “Black people.”