Suffolk County Police ask fans to boycott Super Bowl after Snoop Dogg's performance

Police are asking fans to boycott Super Bowl following Snoop Dogg's performance. Photo / Getty Images

An Instagram post by Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association was removed and later restored by Instagram after calling out Snoop Dogg for his anti-police lyrics during the Super Bowl halftime show.

The New York Post reported Instagram initially removed the post as it included "violence and incitement", which violated their community guidelines of not allowing content "that may lead to a genuine risk to physical harm or direct threat to public safety".

The original post encouraged fans to boycott the popular event in protest of Snoop Dogg's performance, which the association claims encouraged people to "shoot cops".

The post says, "Encouraging people to shoot police officers apparently earns you a spot as a headliner at the Superbowl. If you choose to watch the game at all, (we won't be) halftime is a great moment to shut your TV off in honour of those men and women in blue who gave their lives for us."

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After the original post was removed, Lou Civello, vice president of the Suffolk PBA posted: "The lyrics in Snoop Dogg and J5 Slap's song 'Police' are vile and should be denounced by every American. For Instagram to censor a post that condemns @snoopdogg for encouraging the killing of police officers is evidence that @instagram is complicit and condones such violence."

The post continued: "This is a slap in the face to everyone who has ever worn the uniform and put their lives on the line for the safety of others, and is an example that Instagram enables, if not encourages, harm against police officers. They should be ashamed."

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The rapper's performance his new song at the American NFL event this week immediately caught the attention of the PBA with the first verse including lyrics such as "And start shooting these b****-a** mother****** police" and "'Cause these police getting way too motherf****** outta line".

Snoop Dogg's own lyrics in the song are not provocative or violent towards the police, but the PBA still hold him responsible as the song was released under his name.

It was not the only performance at the Super Bowl that has stirred controversy. Eminem took a knee "Colin Kaepernick-style" during his performance and despite league officials saying they had no issue with the rapper's powerful statement, some reports claimed he and the NFL were at odds over the gesture.