News Digest

‘She divided Americans’: Miami police call for Beyonce show boycott

A police union in Miami has voted to boycott Beyonce’s April concert, claiming the singer used her Super Bowl performance to “divide Americans”. Javier Ortiz, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, has written a statement encouraging all law enforcement officers across the US to follow suit. Beyonce is due to perform at the Miami Marlins Stadium on 26 April as part of her tour. Beyonce’s dancers donned berets and wore all black, similar to the style of the Black Panther Party, as she sang her new single Formation.

The fact that Beyonce used this year’s Super Bowl to divide Americans by promoting the Black Panthers and her antipolice message shows how she does not support law enforcement.

Javier Ortiz, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police

Mr Ortiz wrote: I was one of the tens of thousands of law enforcement officers that didn’t watch the Super Bowl half-time show out of respect for our profession. On another day while flipping through the television channels, I did mistakenly watch her 'Formation’ video.“ The video shows Beyonce sitting on a submerged car in a scene reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina. Later it shows a young black boy dancing in front of a line of police officers before the camera pans to graffiti on the wall which reads "Stop shooting us”. The Miami New Times said Mr Ortiz is no stranger to controversy and a spokesman for the Miami Police Department said he does not speak for the department or the city and that there will be an appropriate police presence at the stadium.