{"id":182609,"date":"2015-07-25T22:53:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T03:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/07\/25\/just-when-i-thought-that-my-outrage-meter-could-handle-it\/"},"modified":"2015-07-25T22:53:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-26T03:53:00","slug":"just-when-i-thought-that-my-outrage-meter-could-handle-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/07\/25\/just-when-i-thought-that-my-outrage-meter-could-handle-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Just When I Thought That My Outrage Meter Could Handle It\u2026\u2026\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

I discover that a former cop tried to conduct a Minstrel Show to fundraise for the cops indicted in the death of Freddie Gray<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A Glen Burnie venue on Wednesday abruptly canceled a planned fundraiser for the six Baltimore police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray after the scheduled entertainment \u2014 a former Baltimore officer singing in blackface \u2014 drew sharp criticism.<\/span>

<\/span>Bobby Berger, 67, who was fired from the city police force in the 1980s after his off-duty performances in blackface drew the ire of the NAACP, had said he wanted to revive the act to help the families of the officers.<\/span>

<\/span>He said he had sold 600 tickets at $45 each to the bull roast scheduled for Nov. 1 at Michael’s Eighth Avenue, where he and several singers planned to perform as guests dined.<\/span>

<\/span>In his performances, Berger impersonates Al Jolson, a white entertainer from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s best remembered for his blackface performance of “Mammy” in the film “The Jazz Singer.”<\/span>

<\/span>But after news of the event began spreading Wednesday, Michael’s posted a statement on its website saying the event would not be held there.<\/span>

<\/span>“No contract was signed with Mr. Berger,” the venue wrote. “Michael’s does not condone blackface performances of any kind. As an event venue, it has not been the practice of Michael’s Eighth Avenue to pre-approve entertainment that is planned as part of a contracted event. This policy will be carefully and thoughtfully reviewed.”<\/span>

<\/span>Berger’s plans drew criticism earlier in the day from the NAACP, the city police union and an attorney representing one of the officers charged in the Gray case.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>Michael Davey, an attorney who works with the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police, said the union was unaware of the event.<\/span>

<\/span>“We don’t endorse it. We do not support it, and we will accept no funds from anything involving this event,” Davey said.<\/span>

<\/span>The police union issued a statement Wednesday saying it has “much respect” for Berger and another retired officer organizing the event but does not condone “any performance representing the iconic racist figure that is Al Jolson” or any fundraising for the officers that does not come directly through the union.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When you have the f%$#ing police union saying that they won’t have anything to do with a fundraiser for indicted cops, you clearly have a problem with race.<\/p>\n

The human race never ceases to amaze me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I discover that a former cop tried to conduct a Minstrel Show to fundraise for the cops indicted in the death of Freddie Gray: A Glen Burnie venue on Wednesday abruptly canceled a planned fundraiser for the six Baltimore police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray after the scheduled entertainment \u2014 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[967,969,1041,1001,982,979],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bigotry","category-evil","category-law-enforcement-misconduct","category-racism","category-stupid","category-wanker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}