The Talk

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

22. So powerful the NYPD...well, I'll let the articles explain.

Previewed live in Atlanta in June 2000, this then-unreleased song makes specific and powerfully direct reference to the killing by four NYPD officers of an unarmed 23-year-old Guinean immigrant, Amadou Diallo, in 1999. The performance prefaced Springsteen’s ten-date run in Madison Square Garden, and before even hearing it, the head of the NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association called on the city’s 27,000 cops to boycott the shows by refusing to work as security guards. NYC Police Commissioner Howard Safir supported the boycott, while Mayor Giuliani complained that ‘there are still people trying to create the impression that the police officers are guilty.’ Of course, Springsteen added the song to his MSG set.

http://www.timeout.com/london/music/100-songs-that-changed-history-14

An NYPD chief tried to show Bruce Springsteen who's the Boss - yanking the singer's police escort from Shea Stadium after he performed a song about cop-shooting victim Amadou Diallo. Chief of Department Joseph Esposito got angry when he heard Springsteen sing "American Skin (41 Shots)" at last Wednesday night's opening show at Shea, a police source told the Daily News. Esposito, the highest-ranking uniformed cop in the department, ordered the escort cut for Springsteen's next show, on Friday night, the source said. The Boss did not play the song that night or the next - and the security detail was restored for the Saturday night finale. Springsteen's spokesman did not return calls for comment about the snub or whether he cut the song from the last two shows to mollify the cops. Boss biographer Dave Marsh, who is married to band co-manager Barbara Carr, called the police reaction "petty foolishness.

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/cop-out-bruce-nypd-pulled-boss-shea-escort-41-shots-article-1.515436