Tennessee Sheriff So Mad Beyoncé Shot Up His House

[contextly_sidebar id="yqMdWaQPBFA8v30McVXk4LCpHQYXwhWW"]Hey white people, how's that Beyoncé freakout going for you? Still in a corner crying about the part of the "Formation" video where a tiny little black child murders every cop in the world, with dancing? A child who might remind us of, say, Tamir Rice, who was killedby a cop for the crime of playing with a toy gun in a park in the open-carry state of Ohio? Of course, if you are not a moron, you know that the child in the Beyoncé video does no such thing. The boy dances, and the cops stand down in peace because HE'S DANCING AND NOT CRIMING.

[contextly_sidebar id="Z5Ao4CjwfmfltXIIP4xVNFZeVOmNhjet"]But for white person Sheriff Robert Arnold of Tennessee's Rutherford County, Beyoncé's video and Super Bowl performance are probably a factor in why somebody shot guns outside his house Monday night:

“We all know, as soon as you put your uniform on, you’re a target,” he said at a news conference Tuesday morning at the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office. “You make people mad when you’re just doing your job.”

Arnold said when he first heard the shots, he wondered if they were inspired by the Super Bowl halftime show.

When asked to clarify that comment, he added, “You know, Beyonce’s video.”

Yes, because that's what people do. As we all know, there is an army of The Blacks who do nothing all day but say hip-hops to each other, until Bey drops a new single, at which point they do what she says in the song. Who can forget the infamous international incident in 2008 when all the black people stormed public places and proceeded to both Like It and Put A Ring On It right in front of the children? So obviously somebody watched that Beyoncé video and was like "Oh well, was going to make tacos tonight, but I guess it's time to go shoot up Sheriff Arnold's house, THANKS QUEEN BEY."

[contextly_sidebar id="d1MUwSCO6spqhgWYnFYY4iR59J5EiQ5b"]Except how nothing in Beyoncé's song or video or performance can be interpreted as a missive to shoot at cops, unless you're an insane wingnut on, say, Fox News. Maybe FOX NEWS is to blame for somebody shootin' in the general vicinity of the sheriff! If any international incidents were sparked by the "Formation" video, we can say for certain they involved fuckin' and going to Red Lobster. 

Sheriff Arnold attempted to clarify his comments:

In an email Tuesday afternoon to further clarify the sheriff's Super Bowl statement, Arnold said, “My comments reflect the violence and senseless killing of seven deputies in the U.S. since the show aired. My comments are an observation of the violence that has occurred but in no way is meant to offend anyone.”

The email also included a link to The National Sheriff's Association's website with the following information: "The senseless killing of four law enforcement officers just this week — on the heels of the anti-police “entertainment” at the Sunday Super Bowl halftime show — reminds us that the men and women in law enforcement take a solemn oath that includes putting their lives on the line every day to protect our citizens."

Uh, yeah OK. Now, before you start thinking this dude is somehow racist, we must reassure you that he's not. His wife says he's not, so case closed.

[contextly_sidebar id="I6Mc9uWcRE6aNMwF4f4L8RRQY5T9A4iL"]Wonkette would like to state for the record that we love good cops. There are eleventy-thousand great cops in America who do incredible work, and we do not support anyone doing violence against them, and it must be terrifying for a cop to be at home and have somebody open fire in his driveway. There are also, unfortunately, some bad cops who abuse their positions, and there is institutional racism in many police   departments that all too often leads to tragic results in the black community.

The point is that it's not a fucking either/or proposition. It's not either "Cops are great and all those black people probably had it coming!" or "FUCK THA POLICE COMING STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND."

And it's not Beyoncé's goddamn fault anybody's getting shot up, just because she made a video that says something important about what it's like to be black in America in 2016.

[ The Tennessean   via   RawStory ]