y Count song "Cop Killer" have been important catalysts to more or less organize police activities. 1. Sporadic Action Law enforcement officers are neccesarily involved with the enforcement of laws. With rock and rap concerts drawing crowds of up to tens of thousands listeners, the task of controlling the masses is not always an easy one. If only intended for safety reasons, this does not prevent some law enforcers from being quite fed up with the surveillance of music fans interested in "the four ss: smoking, snorting, shooting, and screwing" (San Bernardino County Sheriff, Floyd Tidwell, quoted in Roldan 1987:219). Crowd control during rock and rap performances is a major police concern, one that is easily related to safety and security, rather than censorship. Several examples can be mentioned on how police have occasionally tried to control popular music in one way or another. When the first reports on white teenage gangs were spread, many of which were associated with a particular style of music (e.g. heavy metal gangs, punk-rock gangs), heavy metal and punk oriented gang rehabilitation centers became available. The Los Angeles County Police Department is reported to supervise a program called "Back in Control Training Center" designed to de-program and de-metal or de-punk troubled youngsters. The probation officer in charge of this program claims that 80% of the kids who assault their parents are fans of heavy metal (Roldan 1987:220; note that this program is elsewhere identified as being run by two former probation officers, see Marsh 1991:68). In 1987, a record store clerk in Florida was charged with felony for selling another 2 Live Crew cassette, Is What We Are, to a 14-year old girl. The parents of the girl had called the police to complain of the lyrics. Charges were dropped (Jones 1991:78). Police were also involved in the Rock Against Racism case. New York citizens had complained about the noise at the Naumberg concerts fo...
