Artist/Group: Body Count
Album: Body Count
Released: 1992
Label: Sire

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"Cop Killer" is a song composed by Ernie C with lyrics by Ice-T for American heavy metal band Body Count, of which they were both members. Released on Body Count's 1992 self-titled debut album, the song was written two years earlier, and was partially influenced by "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads.

The song's lyrics about "cop killing" provoked much controversy and negative reactions from political figures of the time, such as President George H. W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle, as well as Tipper Gore, co-founder of Parents Music Resource Center. Others defended the song on the basis of the band's First Amendment rights. Ice-T has referred to it as a "protest record. Ice-T eventually recalled the album and re-released it without the inclusion of the song, which was given away as a free single.

Ice-T referred to "Cop Killer" as a "protest record", stating that the song is "in the first person as a character who is fed up with police brutality". Ice-T has also credited the Talking Heads song "Psycho Killer" with partially inspiring the song. "Cop Killer" was written in 1990, and had been performed live several times, including at the 1991 Lollapalooza tour, before it had been recorded in a studio.

The recorded version mentions then-Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates, and Rodney King, a black motorist whose beating by LAPD officers had been caught on videotape. Shortly after the release of Body Count, a jury acquitted the officers and riots broke out in South Central Los Angeles. Soon after the riots, the Dallas Police Association and the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT) launched a campaign to force Warner Bros. Records to withdraw the album.

Following its release, the song was met with strong opposition, with critics ranging from President George H. W. Bush to various law enforcement agencies, with strong demand for the song's withdrawal from commercial availability, citing concerns of promoting anti-police sentiment. Conversely, Ice-T defended the lyrical content of the song as did various other proponents who did not believe that the song posed any risk and remained in support of the song continuing to be released and sold.

CLEAT (Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas) called for a boycott of all products by Time Warner in order to secure the removal of the song and album from stores. Within a week, they were joined by police organizations across the United States.

In an article for The Washington Post, Tipper Gore condemned Ice-T for songs such as "Cop Killer", writing that "Cultural economics were a poor excuse for the South's continuation of slavery. Ice-T's financial success cannot excuse the vileness of his message ... Hitler's anti-Semitism sold in Nazi Germany. That didn't make it right." Some critics argued that the song could cause crime and violence. Dennis R. Martin (Former President, National Association of Chiefs of Police) argued that:

The misuse of the First Amendment is graphically illustrated in Time Warner's attempt to insert into the mainstream culture the vile and dangerous lyrics of the Ice-T song entitled 'Cop Killer'. The Body Count album containing 'Cop Killer' was shipped throughout the United States in miniature body bags. Only days before distribution of the album was voluntarily suspended, Time Warner flooded the record market with a half million copies. The 'Cop Killer' song has been implicated in at least two shooting incidents and has inflamed racial tensions in cities across the country. Those who work closely with the families and friends of slain officers volunteering for the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum, are outraged by the message of 'Cop Killer'. It is an affront to the officers—144 in 1992 alone—who have been killed in the line of duty while the police was upholding the laws of our society and protecting all its citizens.

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