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The backlash surrounding Beyonce’s “Formation” video and Super Bowl performance continues. The Miami Fraternal Order of Police has announced plans to boycott Beyonce’s Miami show in April, reports the Miami Sun-Sentinel, and the union is calling on organizations in other cities to do the same.
“The fact that Beyoncé used this year’s Super Bowl to divide Americans by promoting the Black Panthers and her antipolice message shows how she does not support law enforcement,” Javier Ortiz, president of the Miami FOP, says in a press release, the Sun-Sentinel reports. “We ask all law enforcement labor organizations to join our boycott across the country and to boycott all of her concerts.”
There were reports on Thursday that the Tampa police were set to do the same at an April show in that city, although the Tampa Police Benevolent Association president was not available for comment to the Tampa Bay Times.
Tampa Police spokesman Stephen Hegarty told the paper that reports that no officers have volunteered two work the Tampa show were untrue, saying there have been “some volunteers.”
“It’s still two months away,” Hegarty tells the paper in an email. “We wouldn’t expect all the slots to be filled at this point for an event in April. We have plenty of events before that.” If there is a boycott, the police department would have to bring in on-duty officers to work the show, according to the Times.
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