Police union ad angers organizers of hip-hop concert in Fort Lauderdale

Elizabeth Baier:

"Help, police! I've just been robbed!"

"What do you mean you have no cops available!"

The Fort Lauderdale Fraternal Order of Police set that scene in a half-page newspaper ad on Thursday.The ad warns residents will be less protected Saturday night because 45 officers and four sergeants will be working overtime at the So Fly for Spring Break hip-hop concert at Lockhart Stadium.

Concert organizers said the ad, which depicts a blonde woman crying out for help on her cell phone after an armed man steals her purse, stereotypes hip-hop culture and the unruly behavior sometimes associated with it.

"It's a tragedy, it's a shame, it's a disgrace that in 2006 we have to continue with this type of blatant discrimination," said Kandice James, CEO of Sweet Productions, the concert promoter. "We're being road blocked because it's an African-American event, not just because it's a hip-hop event."

FOP President Jack Lokeinsky said the advertisement has no racial undertones and does not seek to disparage the hip-hop and rap concert. The union simply wants city residents to know that officers are required to work the concert over Easter weekend, he said.

DMC On Violence In Hip-Hop: 'Something Has To Give'

RAP REALITY?

More stupidity in the shadow of Motown