Police in Chicago released a statement yesterday saying that an officer who played theLynyrd Skynyrd song “Sweet Home Alabama” at weekend...
Police in Chicago released a statement yesterday saying that an officer who played theLynyrd Skynyrd song “Sweet Home Alabama” at weekend racial equality march will be disciplined.
The 1974 song by the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd has been taken by some as supporting former Alabama Governor George Wallace, a segregationist, but members of the band have said the lyrics were misunderstood.
The department did not name the officer or say what kind of discipline he or she will receive.
The statement said the police department understands sensitivities related to the song and “cannot condone any behavior that may be viewed as disruptive or disrespectful to any protestor or resident.”
The police officer was playing the song in his car during the march. “The video, which went viral this week, shows an unmarked police car playing the song while driving along with several other Chicago police vehicles.”
The group Stop Mass Incarceration organized the protest where the incident took place and released a statement describing the video of the song playing as a ”grotesque testimony to the genocidal logic of the police across this country who are acting as the modern-day lynch mob under the authority of the state.”
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