Boots Riley’s performance was cut short when the police pulled the plug on him because of his profanity. The so called “abusive language” apparently was cause enough for charges, which the city intends to uphold. The police had to find an obscure law in order to allow these charges to be effective…a law that has not been enforced in 26 years. Riley claims the charges were racially motivated, and the festival knew very well what message his songs contained as well as the profanity involved. It has also been reported that the festival stated they did not know Boots was going to perform…even though he was on the list of performers. No use of his of bad language was abusive, either; only using the language for a positive atmosphere to hype the crowd. The crowd did not take it offensively nor thought it was abusive. FestEvents, or any of the other promoters, indicated that they wouldn’t be worried about swearing at the festival…it was simply not a priority. However Boots was targeted, and now dealing with the backlash. What a @#$%&# sh***y ^#$ law; only big a**h01$$ would f%$!*% enforce that !%$…uh oh, have I said too much? Good thing we ain’t in Virginia. To read more about it and to support Boots, go to his blog post here. Cuss on, Boots.
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