Houston cops protest Beyoncé concert, but not because they couldn’t get tickets
Beyoncé recently returned to her old stomping grounds when her Formation tour made a stop in Houston. The formidable artist kicked off her tour just days after unleashing Lemonade, her ode to the power and beauty of black women, upon the not-so-unsuspecting world, who had been looking forward to Beyoncé releasing some new material following her own marketing efforts. But she wasn’t heralded as a hometown hero by everyone in town—a CBS affiliate reports that her May 7 concert at Houston’s NRG Stadium had an unexpected side show in the form of a police protest.
The Coalition for Police and Sheriffs, which also goes by the appropriate acronym C.O.P.S., clings to the interpretation of Beyoncé’s “Formation” video as being anti-police, because a squad car sinks slowly underwater. The image is actually meant to recall the flood waters that submerged most of the city of New Orleans, something that Beyoncé has made painstakingly clear. But some protestors, including C.O.P.S., are holding it up as evidence of anti-police sentiment. Beyoncé already dispelled that myth in an Elle interview earlier this year, in which she had to clarify that she opposes police brutality and injustice, not the police.
The disagreement has yet to blow over, as one member of C.O.P.S. said his organization still believes Beyoncé is somehow against them. The protest was a “silent but visible” one, in which a blue light was shone on the stadium, a move that could very well have just added to the atmosphere. But even that description suggests that they had a better turnout than their East Coast counterparts.