Cop Killer (song)

"Cop Killer" is a 1992 song by American heavy metal band Body Count, from their 1992 self-titled debut album. The lyrics are sung in the first person of an individual who is outraged by police brutality and decides to take the law into his own hands by killing violent, corrupt police officers. The song, which lyricist Ice T referred to as a "protest record,"^[1] was written in 1990, and was partially influenced by "Psycho Killer" by the Talking Heads.^[2]

The song provoked much controversy and negative reactions from politicians such as George H.W. Bush,^[3] Dan Quayle^[3] and Tipper Gore,^[4] although some defended the song on the basis of the band's First Amendment rights. When Ice T began to feel that the controversy over the song had eclipsed the band's musical merit, he chose to have the album briefly discontinued before it was re-released without the inclusion of the song.^[1] The studio version of the song is currently unavailable in any official format.

[edit] Background

Ice T referred to "Cop Killer" as a "protest record,"^[1] stating that the song is "[sung] in the first person as a character who is fed up with police brutality."^[5] Ice T has also credited the Talking Heads song "Psycho Killer" with partially inspiring the song.^[2] "Cop Killer" was written in 1990, and had been performed live several times, including at the 1991 Lollapalooza tour, before it had been recorded in a studio.^[6]

The recorded version mentions then-Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates, and Rodney King, a black motorist whose beating by LAPD officers had been caught on videotape.^[7] Shortly after the release of Body Count, a jury acquitted the officers and riots broke out in South Central Los Angeles. Soon after the riots, the Dallas Police Association and the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT) launched a campaign to force Warner Bros. Records to withdraw the album.^[3]

CLEAT called for a boycott of all products by Time-Warner in order to secure the removal of the song and album from stores.^[8] Within a week, they were joined by police organizations across the United States.^[3]

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 proposing 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."^[8]

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 reference to Bowie's song "Space Oddity".^[9]

In an article for the Washington Post, Tipper Gore condemned Ice T for songs like "Cop Killer," writing that "Cultural economics were a poor excuse for the South's continuation of slavery. Ice-T's financial success cannot excuse the vileness of his message [...] Hitler's anti-Semitism sold in Nazi Germany. That didn't make it right."^[4] Some critics argued that the song could cause crime and violence.^[3]^[10] Many people were vociferous in their criticism of the song. For example, Dennis R. Martin (Former President, National Association of Chiefs of Police) has argued that:

“

The misuse of the First Amendment is graphically illustrated in Time-Warner's attempt to insert into the mainstream culture the vile and dangerous lyrics of the Ice-T song entitled Cop Killer. The Body Count album containing Cop Killer was shipped throughout the United States in miniature body bags. Only days before distribution of the album was voluntarily suspended, Time-Warner flooded the record market with a half million copies. The Cop Killer song has been implicated in at least two shooting incidents and has inflamed racial tensions in cities across the country. Those who work closely with the families and friends of slain officers volunteering for the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum, are outraged by the message of Cop Killer. It is an affront to the officers—144 in 1992 alone—who have been killed in the line of duty while upholding the laws of our society and protecting all its citizens.^[11]

”

Others defended the album on the basis of the group's right to freedom of speech, and cited the fact that Ice T had portrayed a police officer in the film New Jack City.^[12] Many people from the music world and other fields were supportive of the song. For example, in direct response to the criticism made by Dennis Martin above, Mark S. Hamm and Jeff Ferrell argued the following:

“

Ice-T is not the first artist to embed a 'cop killer' theme in United States popular culture. This theme has been the subject of countless cinematic and literary works, and has appeared many times before in popular music. During the Great Depression, for example, musicians celebrated Pretty Boy Floyd and his exploits, which included the murder of law enforcement personnel. Similarly, the highly respected fiddler Tommy Jarrell wrote and sang 'Policeman,' which begins, 'Policeman come and I didn't want to go this morning, so I shot him in the head with my 44.' But perhaps the best-known case is Eric Clapton's cover version of Bob Marley and the Wailers' 'I Shot the Sheriff,' which reached the top of the U.S. music charts in the mid-1970s (a feat not approached by Ice-T). 'I Shot the Sheriff,' though, never suffered the sort of moral and political condemnation leveled at 'Cop Killer.' How do we account for this difference? ^[13]

”

Over the next month, controversy against the band grew. Vice President Dan Quayle branded "Cop Killer" as being "obscene," and President George H.W. Bush publicly denounced any record company that would release such a product.^[3] 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 they continued to sell the album.^[8]

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,"^[12] before taking Body Count and Warner Bros. Records to the Indecent Publications Tribunal, in an effort to get it banned under New Zealand's Indecent Publications Act. This was the first time in twenty years that a sound recording had come before the censorship body, and the first ever case involving popular music.^[12] After reviewing the various submissions, and listening carefully to the album, 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.^[12]

The criticism escalated to the point where death threats were sent to Warner Bros. Records executives, and stockholders threatened to pull out of the company.^[1] According to his own words in his book The Ice Opinion: Who Gives a Fuck? (1994) Ice T decided to remove the song from the album of his own volition.^[1] Eventually, the album was re-issued with "Cop Killer" removed. Ice T left the label in 1993, following disputes over the album Home Invasion.^[1] The performer stated of the controversy that "When I started out, [Warner] never censored us. Everything we did, we have 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."^[14]

The studio version of "Cop Killer" has not been re-released, although a live version of the song appears on Body Count's 2005 release Body Count: Live in LA. According to 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."^[6]