ICE-T, NO SUGAR: LAW ENFORCEMENT AND POLITICAL REACTIONS TO THE GANSTER RAP "COP KILLER"

Ice-T, No Sugar: Law Enforcement and Political
Reactions to the Gangster Rap “Cop Killer”

By Keith Haley

A chapter in the book
Crime and Punishment in the Lone Star State
(Mark Stallo and Keith Haley, McGraw-Hill, 1997)

Article is copyrighted. All rights pertain.


INTRODUCTION

I got my black shirt on/I got my black gloves on/I got my ski mask on/This shit’s been too long/I got my 12 gauge sawed off/I got my headlights turned off/I’m ‘bout to bust some shots off/I’m ‘bout to dust some cops off (automatic weapons fire....)

Chorus: I’m a Cop Killer/It’s better you than me/Cop Killer/Fuck police brutality/Cop Killer/I know your family’s grievin’/Fuck ‘em/Cop Killer/But tonight we get even/Ha Ha I got my brain on hype/tonigt’ll be your night/I got this long-assed knife/And your neck looks just right/My adrenaline’s pumpin’/I got my stereo bumpin’/I’m out to kill me somethin’/A pig stopped me for nothin’

(Automatic weapons fire....)
Die, Die, Die Pig, Die!

Chorus....
Fuck the police/Fuck the police/Fuck the police/Fuck the police/Fuck the police/Fuck the police/Fuck the police! Fuck the police

Chorus....
Break it down/Fuck the police/yeah
Fuck the police/For Daryl Gates
Fuck the police/For Rodney King
Fuck the police/For my dead homies
Fuck the police/For your freedom
Fuck the police/Don’t be a pussy
Fuck the police/Have some motherfuckin’ courage
Sing along/Cop Killer/Cop Killer/Cop Killer/Cop Killer!
Cop Killer/What’ do you want to be when you grow up!
Cop Killer/Good choice/Cop Killer/I’m a motherfuckin’ Cop
Killer/oohyeah

So go the lyrics of the song “Cop Killer” which have triggered comments and reactions from the stately, the lowly, the powerful, and the pristine. So what’s all of the controversy about? Rapper Ice-T and his supporters say he is simply portraying a fictional character who is voicing frustration and anger with police brutality. Most of America’s law enforcement officers and a lot of other people think differently. Then there are some who aren’t sure what to make of the song.

Since March of 1992, when the “Body Count” album which contains the controversial number was released, approximately 100,000 copies of the album have been sold each month until Time Warner withdrew “Cop Killer” from the album in July at the request of lce-T himself. His justification for the decision was that threats had been directed toward Time Warner and its executives. In the meantime, fiery discussions and commentary as well as protests continued over the song “Cop Killer” well into 1993. The year long battle over the legitimacy and interpretation of “Cop Killer” is a story of big money, corporate irresponsibility, national values, political power, free speech, and racial disharmony.

The battle lines concerning the controversial song were drawn early after its release. Most of the nation’s police officers and their leadership were outraged by the lyrics of the song and the irresponsibility of Time Warner for making and distributing the “Body Count” album. They called for the withdrawal of the recording. Other demands, including an apology from Time Warner to the law enforcement community, were also made. The nature, volume, and diversity of responses to “Cop Killer” may indeed be unique in the history of the recording industry. The ability of the police to mobilize and act successfully on their rage concerning “Cop Killer,” which many perceived to be a “call to arms” or an “open season” on cops, is itself worthy of study.

Other questions are raised by the event. What forces were the police able to bring to bear on Time Warner? What social responsibility do music producers have in selecting artists’ work? What issues are raised in the publication of songs such as “Cop Killer” and those of related genre such as “gangster rap” which contain malicious, sexist, inflammatory, and vile material? What effects do such vicious lyrics have on their subjects, whether it be police officers or others? Finally, will the police now be a filter through which all new controversial material concerning them will have to pass? Will there be a “police correctness?”

OBJECTIVES OF THE PAPER

The paper will examine the law enforcement and political reactions to rap singer Ice-Ts song “Cop Killer” while focusing on the following objectives:

1. Discuss the controversial lyrics of “Cop Killer.”
2. Examine the issues related to the lyrics of gangster rap and related genre.
3. Analyze the leadership and power exerted by the law enforcement community in Texas and the nation in influencing Time Warner to drop “Cop Killer” from future editions of the Body Count’ album.
4. Describe the feelings of law enforcement officers concerning “Cop Killer,” lce-T, and Time Warner.


METHODOLOGY

Popular, social science, and select law enforcement journals and employee association literature were reviewed in order to ascertain the political and law enforcement reactions to Ice-Ts “Cop Killer” throughout the nation. The lyrics of the controversial song were analyzed to determine their meaning within the gangster rap genre and to identify the particular words and phrases most offensive to police officers.

Texas law enforcement officers who were instrumental in effecting the “Cop Killer” protest and proposed boycott were interviewed. Moreover, two questions were posted on a national electronic bulletin board, one of which investigated the willingness of police officers nationwide to participate in the proposed boycott against the Time Warner enterprises and products. The second question asked officers to describe their feelings when they first became aware of the lyrics to “Cop Killer.”

“COP KILLER” LYRICS AND INTERPRETATIONS

It is only once in a great while that an artist work is able to simultaneously attract attention from virtually every quarter of the nation. Ice-T, whose real name is Tracy Marrow, managed to accomplish precisely that. “Cop Killer” was a blockbuster which riveted out an indictment and deadly assault on America’s police to the background of zinging heavy metal music and simulated automatic weapons fire.

The police should indeed be troubled if the lyrics found on page one of this paper are to be taken at face value and that itself became a central question in the “Cop Killer” episode. If a reader or listener takes the lyrics of the song literally, and tens of thousands have done so, s/he is listening in on a well conceived ambush of police officers. The assailants dress the part with black shirts, gloves, and ski masks and are armed with a 12 gauge shotgun and big knife. They intend to kill cops tonight because they are fed up with police brutality. Their redress is immediate and fatal for the police. You hear the shots. In the chorus the killer then proclaims his success, his anger over police brutality, and his glee over the, that the police officer’s f is grieving. We know because he laughs.

Later the listener hears how pumped-up the assailant is. His brain is cranked and his stereo is blasting, He needs to kill something in apparent response to being illegitimately stopped by a police officer, a “pig.” One more cop dies as you hear the gunfire.

A string of “Fuck the police” ensues. Then the same phrase precedes several specific instigations for murdering police officers: “Daryl Gates,” “Rodney King,” “Ice-Vs dead homies,” and certainly not the least inspirational if you are so inclined, “freedom.”

Then, should the intended audience be timid or hesitant, there is the encouragement “Don’t be a pussy, have some motherfuckin’ courage.” The anthem blares onto another strand of”Cop Killer.”

Finally, there is something for the children to aspire to. Ice-T poses the question, “What do you want to be when you grow-up?” The reply is “Cop Killer” to which Ice-T responds “Good choice.” The final line is ‘I'm a motherfuckin Cop Killer.” So why would the police be angry over this song?

THE POLICE WORKING ENVIRONMENT

American police officers spend a substantial portion of their time trying to resolve conflict in an environment that is more than occasionally hostile (Skolnick, 1966). It’s not surprising that the police would oppose anything that might exacerbate the level of hostility they already experience. Even police officers suffer fear on the job and far too many officers don’t come home from work because they have been assaulted or killed. Table I below identifies dangerous circumstances for police officers.

CIRCUMSTANCES AT SCENE OF INCIDENT

TOTAL

71,794
100.0%

Disturbance calls (family quarrels, man with a gun, etc.)
23,535
32.8%

Burglaries in progress or pursuing burglary suspects
1,112
1.5%

Robberies in progress or pursuing robbery suspects
1,149
1.6%

Attempting other arrests
14,741
20.5%

Civil disorders
1,112
1.5%

Handling, transporting, custody of prisoners
8,323
11.6%

Investigating suspicious persons and circumstances
5,941
8.3%

Ambush (no warning)
350
0.5%

Mentally deranged
937
1.3%

Traffics pursuits and stops
6,754
9.4%

All other
7,840
10.9%

Table I LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS ASSAULTED

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, 1990, FBI Uniform Crime Reports (Washington, D.C., 1991), p. 45
The data reveal that disturbance calls, arresting suspects, and managing prisoners are indeed dangerous circumstances for police officers. They frequently result in assaults on the officers.
But assaults on officers aren’t the whole story. Some are killed. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters, and brothers are lost to their families forever. The community and the nation lose trained and talented officers. In 1992, 136 officers were killed in the line of duty. Texas lead the nation with a total of 13 officers killed (Dallas Morning News, January 22, 1993). This was the fifth straight year Texas had the most officers killed. Perhaps it is more than a coincidence that Texas peace officers were particularly bothered by the song and initiated the national protest movement against Time Warner. They may have had the most to lose if the song served as even the slightest motivation to challenge the police.

LAW ENFORCEMENT INTERPRETATIONS OF “COP Killer's” LYRICS

Mainstream American law enforcement was appalled at the lyrics of “Cop Killer.” Clearly many officers, their leadership, and their employee organizations interpreted the lyrics as a real threat to their personal safety. Mark Clark of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT), an organization of 12,000 peace officers, confirmed the perceived threat saying, “What we can’t believe is that people who are in the business of entertaining the public would enter into a business relationship that would jeopardize the lives of the men and women that police our communities” (Jet, June 29, 1992).

Police in Houston, Texas bad a similar interpretation according to Doug Elder, President of the Houston Police Officer’s Association. He stated, “You mix this with the summer, the violence, and a little drugs, and they are going to unleash a reign of terror on communities all across the country” (Donnely, June 22, 1992).

What many consider the triggering event for the nationwide protest and proposed boycott was the May 29, 1992, publication of the “Cop Killer” lyrics in the Dallas Police Association’s newsletter in an article entitled “New Rap Song Encourages Killing of Police Officers.” Had there been any doubt as to what the majority of police officers in America believed the lyrics meant, the subsequent firestorm of protest would not have ensued.

The plethora of law enforcement and political responses to the song notwithstanding, not all law enforcement officers and their leadership accepted the view that “Cop Killer” advocated violence against the police. There was evidence of a far different interpretation which seemed to break along racial lines. Some African-American officers and their employee associations believed the song depiction was precisely what Ice-T himself said it was, a fictional character voicing frustration and anger over police brutality.

The National Black Police Association based in Washington D.C. and the African- American Peace Officer Association in Los Angeles opposed any actions against the album and Time Warner. According to the National Black Police Association, “Ice-T is entitled to voice his anger and frustrations with conditions facing oppressed people” (Pareles, 1992). Likewise, Dallas Senior Corporal James Allen of the predominantly African-American Texas Peace Officers’ Association said of Ice-I and the song, “He’s just a brother expressing himself about the attitude of police across the nation. It’s true and we have to deal with it” (St. Pierre, 1992).

Corporal Allen and the Texas Peace Officers’ Association Chapter in Dallas, in fact, volunteered to provide security for Ice-T and his band at a 1992 New Year’s Eve concert in the city. Lce-T did not respond to the offer but Glenn White of the Dallas Police Association did saying, “It would be in pretty poor taste to work for a band that talks about killing police officers” (St. Pierre, 1992).

Ice-T defends the song and its Lyrics by saying it is no different than other fictional works where police are assaulted and killed, the Terminator II movie as case in point. In the song Ice-T said he represents a fictional character “who is fed up with police brutality” (Rule, 1992). This is a commonly given explanation for much of the violence, hate, and obscenity found in the genre of thrash, gangster rap, and other like categories of music.

If that is all there is to it, what’s the worry over? But on the other hand, Ice-T said in an interview with Time magazine, “My raps aim to give people courage. Listening to me gives you the ability to say screw the system if it’s doing you wrong” (Donnely, 1992). Does that mean the words are meant to cause action or simply to inspire a person to speak-up? It takes some sorting out to find the meaning and the young people who may, in fact, be frustrated might not be able to make the subtle distinctions in interpretation that Ice-T and Time Warner have made.

Ice-T's own life experiences are brought to bear on the issue of the lyrics when asked how the police should feel about the song. Ice-T said,” ‘Cop Killer’ should make cops nervous. I think they should feel threatened. They know they can’t. take a life without retaliation. I do not say go out and do it.” One particularly aggravating circumstance in his own life was when Ice-T was pulled out of a car by the police and laid down on the street. The police left the scene without even saying “Get up” (The New York Times, June 19, 1992).

Time Warner, as might be expected, interpreted the lyrics exactly as Ice-T did. The corporation took the view that the song is fiction but not without a factual base. Time Warner President and CEO Gerald Levin said, “The song is rooted in the reality of the streets,” but points out that ‘Cop Killer’ is no more a call for gunning down the police than Frankie and Johnny is a summons for jilted lovers to shoot one another” (The Wall Street Journal, June 22, 1992). For Time Warner “Cop Killer” was simply a classic case of free expression of an artist protected by the First Amendment. With this almost matter of fact stance the corporation had no plans to alter its course in distribution and sale of the album. In fact, a TW spokesman said, “What guardians of respectability find vile is considered compelling and clever to hundreds of thousands of fans” (The Wall Street Journal, June 22, 1992).

OTHJ INTERPRETATIONS OF “COP KILLER’S” LYRICS

Some of the many journalists who commented on the song would seem to be having it both ways. They feel the lyrics should sound an alarm because of its reality base in places such as South Central L.A., yet claim the song is hyperbole, boast, and gesture emanating from the black traditions of street life (Editorial, New Republic, August 10, 1992). Are the situations depicted real or not, and if they are not, why the alarm?

Other journalists were as offended as the police. Michael Kinsley (1992) of CNN and Time magazine renown said, “Killing policeman is a good thing. That is the meaning of the words and no larger understanding of black culture, the rage of the streets, or anything else can explain it away.” Similarly, the Parents’ Music Resource Center was struck by the “vileness of the message” (Donnely, 1992).

POLITICAL REACTIONS TO “COP KILLER”

If the police were feeling neglected and abused coming off the deluge of negative publicity from the Rodney King incident and the Los Angeles riot, their hopes were lifted by support they received from many quarters concerning “Cop Killer,” including attention from the very top. It was an election year for the President, the Vice President, and Congress and there were numerous platforms from which they could speak their minds on an issue that connected to violence and crime.

President Bush was quick to react stating that “he is against those who use films and records or television or video games to glorify killing police officers. I don’t care how noble the name of the company, it is wrong for any company to issue records that approve of killing police officers” (The Wall Street Journal, June 30, 1992). Vice President Quayle urged Time Warner to reexamine its sponsorship of “Cop Killer,” realizing that the government could not act because of First Amendment Rights (The Wall Street Journal, June 22, 1992). Time Warner had no reply.
Then presidential candidate Bill Clinton raised an issue in the Sister Souljah case that was mentioned by more than one critic of Time Warner. Known as the “Clinton Test,” Mr. Clinton asked the question, “What if the roles were reversed in Sister Souljah’s rap that suggested that blacks take a day off from killing each other and kill only whites for a day?” He said that would make them sound like a speech from David Duke (The Wall Street Journal, June 22, 1992). The logic was persuasive and used by many in expressing their displeasure over the controversial song “Cop Killer.”

There were other reactions from political quarters. Several dozen members of Congress angrily protested the record in a letter and urged Time Warner to withdraw the record from production and distribution. State legislator Will Harnett of Texas wrote a letter of protest to Time Warner on May 29, 1992, well before any of the of the other politicians. The Los Angeles Police Commission also called for Time Warner to stop selling the record and said their action was “in concern for all of the police officers throughout the country, we have to take a position that we oppose this kind of music” (The New York Times, July 16, 1992).

Oliver North and the Freedom Alliance put pressure on the nation’s 50 governors to bring criminal charges against Time Warner in violation of sedition and anti-anarchy statutes (Zimmerman, 1992). The pressure on Time Warner was mounting.

As lithe explosive law enforcement and political reactions to “Cop Killer” were not enough, corporate America began to raise a critical issue. Editor-in-Chief Charles Day (1992) of Industry Week believed the lce-T song struck deeper than the current issue over the lyrics. He believed that American corporations had not identified what their values were not what kinds of behavior they wanted to either encourage or discourage among their workers. The “Cop Killer” song “is hardly a solitary example of corporate indifference to the public interest,” according to Mr. Day. Perhaps a lesson might be learned concerning the need to define the values management should hold dear and ask their employees to embrace.

A SAMPLE OF OPINION FROM A NATIONAL COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARD

On January 17, 1993, two questions were posted on the interactive personal service board of Prodigy, a national computer information service. The questions to police officers were:

1. How did you feel when you first read the lyrics of “Cop Killer?”
2. Would you have participated in a boycott against Time Warner if the corporation had not pulled the song from the market?

Only seven responses were received, one from a police widow whose husband was killed in 1989. The responses to question # I were examined for common themes. Table 2 below summarizes the results of the inquiry on Prodigy.

RESPONDENT FEELINGS
BOYCOTT ACTIVITY
A
“anger and grief’
Would boycott
B
“infuriated”
Already boycotting
C
“should know feelings”
Already boycotting
D
“lyrics are trash”
Would boycott
E
“outraged”
Already boycotting
F
“outraged”
Already boycotting
G
“lyrics are free speech”
No response

Table 1

RESPONSES TO PRODIGY BULLETIN BOARD SURVEY

Only one of the respondents to the Prodigy survey failed to react negatively to the lyrics and in most cases the respondents were angered, outraged, and infuriated. The lone dissenter saw the issue of the lyrics in terms of free speech. Relative to the boycott, again all but one would have participated and some of them had started and were continuing to take some boycott action against Time Warner. In sum, six of the seven (85.7%) were both angered by the lyrics of the song and were in favor of boycotting Time Warner had it been necessary to get the song removed from distribution.

THE GANGSTER RAP GENRE

Poetic depictions of crime, violence, racial haired, sexual assault, and conflict with the police on the streets are a major source of profit in today’s music industry, maybe reaping as much as $700 million each year. Ice-T, who is credited with the founding of the particular genre known as “crime rhyme” or “gangster rap”, is reported to have 400,000 hard-core fans across the nation. The “Body Count” album which contained “Cop Killer” sold 100,000 copies a month until the song was deleted. It should be noted that this amount of sales was accomplished with virtually no air time for the song on radio or television since the lyrics were considered too offensive to be aired.

Who buys the music? Ice-T claims that 70% of the sales are to middle class white young people who also can afford the T-shirt, hat, and perhaps the jacket. Urban blacks are more likely to hear the tape on pirated copies. Nevertheless business is booming.

Ice-T, who grew up in middle class Los Angeles and did a four year stint in the Army, has had four gold albums beginning with “Rhyme Pays” and including “OG: Original Gangster” which many critics and commentators consider to be his best work. Ice-T, raised as Tracy Marrow, has been successful enough to branch out into other ventures such as his roles in the movies “New Jack City” and “Trespass.” “Trespass” was originally intended to be entitled “The Looters,” but the L.A. riot changed the movie producer's mind.

To droning yet captivating hip-hop beats rappers such as Ice-T, Ice Cube, and NWA (Niggas With Attitude) pipe out a profitable onslaught of sexism, hatred, homophobia, violence, and crime. But some say there are messages in the music which are truly compelling and can give all Americans an ear to the desperation and hopelessness that reside in the nation’s urban centers. So buried within the titles such as “Fuck the Police,” “KKK Bitch,” “Momma's Gonna Die Tonight,” “Home of the Body Bag,” “Street Killer,” “100 Miles and Runnin,” and many others there is, for the most part some injustice or inequity which is supposed to have fueled the rage and hatred that emits from the music. Other titles are more direct in portraying the plight of urban black life. “911 Is a Joke,” “Escape from the Killing Fields,” “Mind Over Matter,” and “Ed,” a song which warns of the fast life and drunk driving, point out the futility of much of life in the ghetto. There is something here that needs to be heard and may not be available for most Americans any other way. An understanding of Ice Cube’s “Black Korea,” some say, might very well have given us a portend of the poor state of relations between Korean merchants and their black customers in L.A. prior to the 1992 riot had anyone been listening.

Because the music is offensive to so many Americans of all creeds and color, the gems of truth which may be found in the vile, profane, and exaggerated language of the gangster rappers and others will more than likely be heard by only a small segment of the American population. Perhaps knowing that the messages are there could spur some other means of finding the truths amidst the hyperbole. For many African-Americans rap is no more attractive, sometimes driving a wedge between people of the same race. L.A.’s new African-American police chief, Willie Williams, claims to have “major problems with rap music as an American, as a parent, and as a 30 year police officer” (Zimmerman, 1992).

One Chicago radio station, whose listening audience is predominantly black, advertises as the station that plays no rap, apparently capitalizing on the widespread distaste for the genre among blacks with higher demographic profiles and incomes (Muwakkil, 1990).

But there are other views on this music of the African-American underclass. Dr. Charles V. Willie, Professor of Education and Urban Studies at Harvard University comments that entertainment through depictions of violence is not new and points out that “the elite in their finery have for years attended opera as form of entertainment and some operas are known to be violent...like Wagner’s “Das Rheinhold” (Jet, April 1, 1991). The language of rap, which conveys the street themes to the underclass and the youth, is simply considered vile and vulgar by the majority of Americans and that fact alone will prevent the messages from ever being heard unless delivered in some other medium.

Poetry by its very definition is to evoke the highest and lowest emotions in human beings. Gangster rap does that indeed and Ice-I would appear to be at the head of the class in this genre. Quincy Jones believes “Ice-I has the best poetic quality of any rapper, and the strongest narrative” he has ever heard (Donnely, 1992). Ice-T has evolved since he first began spinning records in the Army and when the renowned gangster rapper stepped in to the heavy metal world with the controversial “Body Count” album, he evoked some emotions and a whale of a controversy.

THE APPLICATION OF POLICE LEADERSHEP AND POWER

A number of perspectives might logically be taken to tell the story of what happened in the police protest and boycott against Time Warner. It was in many respects a moral victory of sorts against vile and obscene lyrics, with many victories left to be won in that arena in many people’s minds. It was no less a media blitzkrieg with scores of journalists around the nation offering their “two columns” or so on the matter. But the perspective on the fight and its accomplishments that is perhaps most plausible is that of a righteous movement orchestrated by an enraged law enforcement community who seldom exercise the real power they possess. That exercise of power and influence on a national scale was accomplished by the contributions of scores of police labor and agency leaders. But several law enforcement officials in Texas made it happen through their moral courage and leadership directed against Time Warner. What odds would anyone have given to American law enforcement officers in this age, thought to be loosely organized nationwide and incessantly pummeled in the media over alleged police brutality and racism, in taking on a multi-billion dollar corporation and winning any concessions? They believe they won and the victory came in slightly more than one month from the call to arms. The story of the “Six Week War” is intriguing.

THE POLICE POWER-UP FOR A FIGHT

Perhaps no different than a lot of other nights Glenn White, Senior Corporal of the Dallas Police Department and Vice President of the Dallas Police Association, was at the Northeast Police Substation doing business as usual when his Sergeant asked him if he had seen the words to a new rap song that was out about killing cops. He had not. But when he did read and reflect on the lyrics of “Cop Killer,” his anger began to build and he wanted to do something about it. Out of this one officer’s outrage and commitment to change things came a lesson that the recording industry, law enforcement, and lots of other people are not likely to forget. A brief chronology of the events and developments that followed Glenn White’s initial steps to fight back are detailed below in an attempt to assist the reader in grasping the essential developments in a well orchestrated, albeit fortuitous, sequence of events and circumstances that allowed the police of the nation to accomplish a feat that heretofore was clearly deemed unassailable.

An analysis and discussion of key leadership issues and the results of interviews with the two most important law enforcement actors in the challenge to Time Warner’s might will follow. The concentration and application of power exercised by the police will also be considered.

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

March 1992 - Time Warner releases the “Body Count” album which contained the song “Cop Killer” performed by rapper Ice-T and a new heavy metal band. Before the album’s release, against the wishes of Ice-T, the title was changed from “Cop Killer” to “Body Count,” the name of one of the songs on the new release and the name of Ice-Vs heavy metal band. Early promotion copies of the album were delivered to radio and television stations in miniature “body bags.”

May 29, 1992- Glenn White published the lyrics of the song “Cop Killer” in the May29 issue of ”The Shield,” the Dallas Police Association’s newspaper. White was astounded that Time Warner, a respectable company in his eyes, could be making money off of a song that suggested the killing of police officers. He urged the readers and their families to write Time Warner in protest and to boycott all their products and movies until the company removed the song. The address of Lenny Waronker, President of Time) Warner Bros. Records was provided in the article.

June 4, 1992 - Eric Wramp, President of the Corpus Christi Police Officers’ Association, read White’s article and called a press conference to express his anger over the song. That same day Wramp sent a scathing letter to Time Warner.

Dan Calderon, staff writer of the Corpus Christi Caller Times, published the first media article about the police anger and threatened boycott The story is picked up off of the Associated Press wire service and the nation began to read about “Cop Killer” and the police movement against it.
June 8, 1992 - Ron Delord., President of the 12,000 member Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT), held a meeting in Austin to decide strategy and tactics to fight Time Warner.

An Austin resident who holds stock in Time Warner provided CLEAT with a shareholder’s packet that delineated Time Warner financial holdings and included the news of a shareholders’ meeting in Beverly Hills, California on July 16.

June 9, 1992- CLEAT staff under the direction of Ron Delord and Mark Clark mobilized a national campaign by mailing out protest packets to hundreds of police associations and other groups across the United States and Canada. The packets contained a CLEAT press release, a copy of Glenn White’s article, a copy of the letter sent to Time Warner by a police survivors’ organization, Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS), Time Warner stockholders’ information, and other items useful in combating Time Warner.

June 11, 1992 - Approximately 75 uniformed police officers and others held a press conference in Arlington, Texas across from Six Flags Over Texas, an enormous amusement park, of which Time Warner holds 50% of the stock. At the press conference, chaired by Ron Delord and Glenn White, the police announced they would attend the stockholders’ meeting in Beverly Hills, California on July 16, and encouraged law enforcement officers from across the nation to attend. They would withhold a boycott decision until after the stockholders’ meeting in California, but wanted the record pulled, an apology made to law enforcement and police survivors, and a large monetary contribution from “Cop Killer” profits donated to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund.

June 11, 1992 to July 15, 1992 - Opposition to “Cop Killer” swelled across the nation despite Time Warner’s and Ice- stand on the fictional nature of the song and an artist’s right of free expression. The police attracted support from diverse quarters: politicians, record store owners, niteclub owners, journalists, corporate leaders, the black community, religious leaders, Time Warner stockholders, a vast majority of the public, and celebrities. The more publicity, the stronger the condemnation of Time Warner.

July 15, 1992 - Law enforcement officers and family members held a strategy meeting in Beverly Hills, the night before the stockholders’ annual meeting, and invited two Time Warner executives who left the meeting surprised at the level of anger and the strength of the opposition.

July 16, 1992 - The police protested outside the Beverly Hills Wilshire Hotel where the stockholders’ meeting was being held. Later inside the hotel Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin was repeatedly interrupted by stockholders who wanted to deal with the “Cop Killer” issue before regular business was attended to. Charlton Heston read the Cop Killer words to a stunned crowd of investors. Many others gave emotion-laden speeches and pleas, most of which were police labor leaders in the United States and Canada, police survivors of assaults, and family to officers.

July 28, 1992 - Ice-T “voluntarily” removed “Cop Killer” from distribution because of alleged death and bomb threats made toward Time Warner executives and him. Ice-T would continue to issue single copies to those who request them but the song would not be produced by Time Warner. Time Warner offered no apology.

July 31, 1992 - CLEAT and several other police associations across the nation declared an end to the verbal assaults on Time Warner and divested from any further boycott activity. Other police associations vowed to fight on to achieve somewhat nebulous objectives.
December 311992- Ice-T played a New Year’s Eve concert in Dallas where the crowd measured less than 300. The Dallas Police Association offered no protest, not wanting to promote racial disharmony in the city.

January 28, 1993 - Warner Bros. Records dropped Lce-T from its list of performers as a result of a disagreement over the artwork on the cover of his new album “Home Invasion.” Both claim the release from his contract was by mutual agreement. TW said it was the best way to resolve their “creative differences.”

February 1993 - Ice-T found an independent distributor, Priority Records, to release his “Home Invasion” album. Record is scheduled to be out by mid-March with apparently no changes in the album’s cover art, which depicts a white youth listening to the album while imagining violent images.

LEADERSHIP EMERGES

It didn’t take long after Glenn White’s publication of the lyrics to “Cop Killer” and the AP wire service story on a proposed police boycott of Time Warner for a momentum to build against the publishing and entertainment giant. But the momentum lacked a clear direction and it needed leadership if it were to accomplish anything. Fortunately for the law enforcement community Glenn White and Ron Delord were willing to step forward, an action that would require great personal sacrifice from both men. Other leaders eventually took up the cause nationwide. From the written coverage available on this event and from interviews with Delord and White, it became evident that their roles could not be minimized in this battle. It is unlikely that anything of significance would have been accomplished without them.

Leadership has many definitions, but virtually all of them contain several key ingredients that played a big part in the campaign against Time Warner, President Eisenhower’s definition was “getting someone else to do something you want done because they want to do it.” Historian James McGregor Bums (1980) describes transforming Leadership as “when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality.” The world is replete with examples of this kind of leadership where the moral high ground belonged to the movement: Gandhi in India, William Lloyd Garrison on slavery and King on civil rights. A shared set of motives is at the heart of transforming leadership.

It became clear from the beginning that the police had an issue that the vast majority of the nation would support them on if they could mobilize and manage this attack. Glenn White’s article in the Dallas police Association’s newsletter and his call for a boycott against Time Warner was an act of courageously doing something first, also a credible definition of leadership. No less courageous was Eric Wramp’s news conference in Corpus Christi, before he had read the political climate. Others might have waited to get a reading of reactions to the song before stepping forward to protest. When the calls began to come in to the offices of the Dallas Police Association and CLEAT in Austin, the police knew they had to get organized. On June 8, 1992, Ron Delord of CLEAT held a strategy meeting in Austin with key staff to discuss the growing media coverage of the “Cop Killer” issue. It was there that a decision was made to expand the fight against the corporation.

Two decisions were made that were critical to the effectiveness of the campaign. First, CLEAT decided to move immediately before the story got old and secondly, a press conference was scheduled for June 11 at Six Flags Over Texas, a “family” amusement park in Arlington, Texas where large numbers of officers could be mobilized from many different agencies in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. The show of combined law enforcement strength at the press conference in a location that would allow the police to make the striking contrast between the atrocious lyrics of “Cop Killer” and the financially rewarding Six Flags Amusement Park with its family image was a media bonanza. Both attractions of the press conference were Time Warner financed enterprises. In the meantime, both CLEAT and the Dallas Police Association began to mall out packets of information to interested and outraged police officers, survivor organizations, police employee associations, politicians, and the public across the nation. The DPA was asking recipients of the packages, among other things, to boycott Time Warner.
What would be the law enforcement position on “Cop Killer” beyond the fact they were shocked and angered at the song? The decision was made to focus on the greed and immorality of Time Warner for publishing such an offensive work of art and not to become embroiled in a futile controversy over Ice-Ts right to perform the song according to the First Amendment which might result in the police being tagged with a position that advocated censorship. This approach allowed the police to bring in an even greater number of supporters, some of which might have flinched if a call for censorship was made.

Next the decision was made by Ron Delord and the CLEAT organization to withhold their call for a boycott, realizing how often this approach proves fruitless. But the threat of a boycott loomed large and Time Warner was left to think about that possibility for awhile.

But as luck would have it, a Time Warner shareholder in Austin gave CLEAT a shareholder’s packet that contained an array of financial and investment information about TW, including an announcement of the July 16 annual shareholders’ meeting in Beverly Hills, California. CLEAT hoped to bring the protest to a successful conclusion at the July meeting and would be able to keep the story alive in the media for a month and have the time to mobilize a national campaign against Time Warner. In the meantime, the DPA under the leadership of Glenn White and CLEAT, directed by Ron Delord, mailed out nearly 2,000 information packets to law enforcement organizations and other groups across the nation. The CLEAT package contained the following: a CLEAT press release; Glenn White’s article; a copy of the Concerns of Police Survivors’ letter to Time Warner; an announcement of the July 16 stockholders’ meeting; a list of all TW directors and major holdings; and a copy of a visual that was used at the July 11 press conference which simulated a movie poster announcement reading “Time Warner...Now Proudly Presents...Cop Killer.”

The press conference on June 11 was an unqualified success. Dozens of police in uniform were there and it was chaired by Delord and White, no doubt both slightly stunned by the amount of media attention given the event. They played opening lines to “Cop Killer” and distributed the lyrics. The media covering the story were clearly struck and went back to their offices and studios to write about it and broadcast the story. The police also announced that they would be at the shareholders’ meeting in Beverly Hills on July 16 to demonstrate and promised that lots of other police from across the nation would join them.

The next five weeks prior to the July 16 meeting in Beverly Hills saw public condemnation swell. TW sent two public relations executives to Texas to feel out the strength of the police opposition. They were not impressed, apparently, because TW continued to stand by their artist’s right to record and perform the song. Glenn White was drafted into a nationwide schedule of media appearances and he told the “Cop Killer” story to Newsweek, People Magazine, CBS This Morning, and to many others as well on a litany of radio talk and news shows, many of which were in Canada. Keep in mind he was still a working Dallas police officer, but could not escape the movement he started even on vacation in Florida where a magazine descended upon him and his family because they needed photos for an upcoming edition. Glenn White spent a lot of his own money in this campaign and he all but drained his accumulated vacation time in making appearances for this cause he dearly believed in.

Things were coining to a head by the time of a strategy meeting that was held in Beverly Hills on July 15, 1992. Police officers, family members, and representatives from Concerns of Police Survivors attended as well as two TW executives who came to defend the corporation’s position on the song. Delord had invited the TW executives and he chaired the meeting. The crowd was angry and emotional. After a couple of hours of listening to the furor over the song, the TW representatives left with no doubt as to what they were confronting. They now knew the opposition was formidable.

On Thursday, July 16, the police protested outside the Beverly Hills Wilshire Hotel. To their surprise, the media personnel outnumbered the police available to demonstrate. Police leaders quickly characterized it as a representative group of the rank and file of law enforcement. Before the shareholders’ meeting began a couple of notable incidents occurred. Several youths attempted to aggravate the police by playing “Cop Killer” on their “boom boxes.” To avoid a confrontation, the police moved their protest to another location. Next, no other than Ice himself makes a cameo appearance by driving by in his Rolls Royce and giving the police protesters the “finger.” But the real action was to take place inside.

Now more than 1,200 shareholders were inside the hotel and had been given copies of the lyrics to “Cop Killer” by Glenn White and others. CEO Gerald Levin tried to hold the regular business meeting first and then deal with the controversy with the police. The shareholders demanded addressing the “Cop Killer” issue first.

By now the shareholders had read the lyrics and were virtually “dropped” by the emotion-laden reading of the words to the song by Charlton Heston. Numerous police leaders and others made persuasive presentations. Some of the organizations who had representatives speak at the meeting were the Fraternal Order of Police, the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the New York City Detectives’ Endowment Association, the Metropolitan Toronto Police Association. Police widow Kathleen Young from Kansas City and Houston minister James Dixon also spoke.

One particularly heart-wrenching speaker was a Suffolk County, New York deputy sheriff who had suffered having his face blown off by a shot gun blast while he was writing the young perpetrator a traffic citation. He described the pain and agony of facial reconstruction and the long emotional struggle back. The words of “Cop Killer” reached a heightened relevance. Opera star Beverly Sills, seated in the front row, was reported to have wept like a baby. The meeting adjourned.

On July 28, 1992, lce-T held a press conference and said he was voluntarily withdrawing the “Cop Killer” song from the “Body Count” album because of death threats made to Time Warner executives. Still today there is no real evidence that lce-T was pressured by Time Warner to drop the song, but can there be any doubt that they did since the corporation’s stock had dropped significantly in just several weeks and their reputation was soured during the period of the protest. There was no apology for the song by either lce-T or Time Warner. In fact, Ice-T maintained that he would continue to give out singles of the song at his expense to anybody who wanted a copy. Undoubtedly surprised, the police, who had wanted an apology and the song pulled from the market, expected perhaps they would get an apology and no action on the song. The opposite transpired.

Most of the law enforcement organizations involved in the protest have dropped their call for a boycott and seem reasonably satisfied that the song is no longer being distributed. Some officers and organizations are holding out for the apology from Tune Warner. That does not seem likely. CLEAT and other Texas police groups are generally satisfied with the results. It seems that the general mood nationwide is to claim the victory and move on.


BASES OF POWER

Producing intended results and having the capacity to gain compliance are both popular definitions and manifestations of power. American law enforcement was able to accumulate, coordinate, and exercise power in the “Cop Killer” protest in ways they had never done before. What power bases did they operate from in order to arrive at the point of whipping a giant? A number can be identified.

1. The Moral High Ground. Anger and disgust had been brewing in America for several years over the violent and obscene material coming out of the entertainment media, but few were willing to risk their reputations and political capital over a matter that traditionally had been cast as a censorship issue. Now gangster rap had made it something different when the artists’ depictions called for killing police officers. The police were able to mobilize support across age, racial, ethnic, religious, and political lines. Who would try to defend a song that advocated killing police officers? Strange allies came together in this movement In Dallas, for example, the strident and diverse Police Civilian Review Board, not known to see eye to eye on much of anything, all signed a protest letter against the song.

2. Police Labor and Police Management. The two groups have had their differences as of late over working conditions and the management of law enforcement agencies. But “Cop Killer” staked out common turf to be defended if there was ever anything to come together on. Police management, for the most part, contributed their moral and vocal support and stood back while the labor organizations took the lead on this one. It should be pointed out also that losing would have had adverse consequences for whoever led the fight. The rank and file were willing to take the risk. Perhaps they discovered just how strong they can be when the battle is carefully chosen and how much muscle they can flex if needed.

3. The Power of the Buck. It has been reported that the police were considering as the ultimate weapon to use in the fight against Time Warner the withdrawal of police pension funds out of Time Warner stock. The dollar value would have been in the billions with one report suggesting in New York City alone the figure would have reached seven billion dollars. As Time Warner watched its price of shares drop during the controversy, the thought of serious financial hardship had to loom large with the corporation’s leadership.

4. Media Support. Virtually all of the media, even while attempting to cover both sides of the issue, in the end came down on the side of the police. Those who put up a defense for Ice-T and Time Warner often seemed unsure about it. Media personnel, like most Americans, were offended by the song and exercised some trepidation over the thought of allowing something of this nature to go unchecked. The police needed to exercise no manipulation in this case, the media punched away as fervently as anybody.

5. Politicians and the Crime Problem. While no politician got into the particulars of gangster rap, there was the issue of shielding the nation’s crime fighters from such attack which politicians quickly noticed fit in well with their campaign rhetoric about crime control. Violence in the media and escalating crime rates did affect voters and the presidential candidates as well as many others commented on the “Cop Killer” controversy. This was a strong component of the broad-based campaign against Time Warner and the growing anti-violence phenomenon in our society.

6. Latent Support for the Police. At last the police saw large and diverse segments of the population support them. In the aftermath of the Rodney King incident and subsequent cases, the media and others seemed to “pile on” law enforcement. “Cop Killer” became a lightning rod for attracting sympathy and support from thousands of people and many organizations that had rarely come forward to defend the police. “Cop Killer” vividly told them what an evening of law enforcement duty might be like and they were touched.

7. Personal Courage and Will. Sometimes things happen as a result of the personal courage and wilt of an individual or small group of leaders. The half-dozen or so Texas law enforcement officers and officials who took it on their own to speak out against “Cop Killer” are precisely of that ilk. Their actions were not without risk and one would suspect that more than once they did the equivalent of “turning around to see if anybody was still behind them” Fortunately their leadership induced a massive following. In Glenn White’s June 9 article in the “The Shield” he exhorted his readers by saying, “WE CAN DO IT!” He made them believe.

RESULTS AND AFFERMATH OF THE “COP KILLER” CONTROVERSY

In slightly more than six months from the height of the “Cop Killer” controversy a lot of things have happened which were the results of the police protest. A number of the salient results are:

1. “Cop Killer” is off the market
2. A major corporation yielded to police and public pressure.
3. Warner Bros. Records has promised to be more careful in the review of what they publish.
4. Warner Bros. Records dropped lce-T as one of its recording artists, allegedly over the cover art on his new album “Home Invasion.”
5. Rappers who use vile and offensive language in their lyrics are having trouble getting their albums produced.
6. The nation has been awakened on the issue of violence in the media and even television has developed a set of standards concerning violence that it intends to employ in the fall 1993 season.
7. lce-T has found a new independent producer and distributor, Priority Records.
8. lce-T can claim he had a song so bad it had to be dropped from distribution.
9. The police of the nation have discovered that someone out there does care about them.
10. Time Warner has yet to offer a word of apology to American law enforcement.

CONCLUSIONS

Glenn White is back to his normal routine of working patrol until midnight and spending a good portion of his spare time, as usual, being the Vice President of the Dallas Police Association. Ron Delord is spending a lot of time over at the Texas Legislature which just went into session in January of 1993, something it does only every two years. There are always issues affecting the police to be discussed and he is in the throes of it.

Ice-T is about to release his “Home Invasion” album, the target date being March of 1993. No doubt he continues to make money with gangster rap music and has derived some notoriety from the controversy with the police and Time Warner. But when it comes to “Cop Killer” and all that it meant to the police and the public and its ultimate effect on Ice-T, there is perhaps no better way to put it, than to quote a lyric of one of Ice-Vs own raps on the album “00, The Original Gangster”, “HOW DID HE GO OUT? HE WENT OUT LIKE A BITCH!”

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