City Supports Badu's Nude, Lewd Behavior

The antics of the artist formerly known as apples in downtown Dallas recently doesn't even come close to rivaling the response of the City of Dallas police department. Charges of disorderly conduct, which carries only a $500 fine, were assigned to the singer after the March 17th public pornographic display in front of unwitting men, women and children.

Not surprisingly,faithful fans defend the singer's actions as pure art. What is surprising is that there weren't charges of lewd behavior, public indecency, nudity or several other charges with much heavier fines assigned to the singer. To be sure, if it were my 18 year old, black, male, son stripping naked downtown he would have been immediately arrested and charged appropriately with public nudity, indecency, and numerous other charges.

Could it be that many of the charges the singer should have been charged with are in fact felonies? Could it be that once the singer attains felony status that she would no longer be a cash cow for the city of Dallas? Perhaps when the police department called this press conference they were thinking as Ms. Badu obviously did...who cares?

Well, I care and I say shame on the city of Dallas for its poor efforts at enforcing laws already on the books for the protection of children and families. Shame on the Mayor of Dallas and members of the Dallas City Council for not openly speaking against the actions of the artist and demanding that appropriate charges be assigned to her. Shame on advocacy agencies that purport to stand for survivors of violence, teen dating, sexual and domestic who, were this anyone else, be crying injustice and demanding she be charged with a felony and jailed. Shame on this city's clergy who have chosen also to hide and be silent.

Finally, shame on Arts Magnet for not openly speaking out and denouncing her as a representative of the school. She should apologize, pull this video and go to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $500.