KRS-One Speaks Passionately on Police Brutality
No matter where you fall on the issue of what is deemed “excessive force,” police brutality can no longer be swept under the rug. Hip hop royalty KRS-One recently spoke on the subject with CNN, where he likened the acts of cops to that of legal gangs.
The Bronx-born MC, whose 1993 single “Sound of da Police” is still applicable today, has long used a lyrical platform as a voice for the disenfranchised. “The music that I would do would speak to why are we living in these conditions,” he said.
Some 30 years since the game-changing Criminal Minded album, KRS doesn’t see much of a change in America’s race problem.“Things have gotten worse because we have an African-American president and it seems like racism in the United State is overflowing,” noted KRS. “This is the problem with the United States, there’s no leadership.”
“A leader would say, ‘Police brutality is an oxymoron, there are no brutal police. The minute you become brutal you’re no longer police,’” he explained. “So, what we’re not dealing with police. We’re dealing with a federally authorized gang.”
As 2015 comes to a close, more than 1,000 people in the U.S. have been killed by police officers, and roughly 20 percent were unarmed.
Click here for KRS-One’s full interview.
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(Photo: Scott Wintrow/Getty Images)