Detroit’s top cop said a police sergeant is under investigation after he apparently posted a photo on social media, drawing comparisons between Beyoncé’s Super Bowl dance troupe and the Ku Klux Klan.
The sergeant, who has not been named, posted a meme showing Beyoncé’s dancers on the top and hooded Klansmen on the bottom, according to Fox affiliate WJBK.
“If the dance troupe at the top is okay for this year’s half-time show, then the one at a bottom should be okay for next year, right?” the sergeant wrote, according to WJBK.
The Facebook post pointed to Beyoncé’s live performance of “Formation,” which seemed to depict Black Panthers marching into an “X” formation — perhaps in a nod to Malcolm X.
Detroit Police Chief James Craig told WJBK that he received complaints from employees throughout the department about the post.
“Certainly this does not and shouldn’t represent our police officers,” he told the news station.
Amid the outcry, the department has launched an investigation.
Although Beyoncé’s act was met with widespread praise, it also sparked a debate about whether the artist should have dragged politics onto the football field.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday called it an “attack” on police officers, and some critics launched a social media campaign using the hashtag #BoycottBeyonce.
“This is football, not Hollywood, and I thought it was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers who are the people who protect her and protect us, and keep us alive,” Giuliani said on “Fox & Friends.”
An unidentified group is now planning to protest Beyoncé next week at NFL headquarters.
The Detroit police sergeant later retracted his post and replaced it with an apology, according to local news reports.
ABC affiliate WXYZ reported that the sergeant acknowledged that he had “apparently ruffled some feathers.”
“My intent was to draw attention to what I felt was a poor decision by the NFL,” he wrote, according to the station. “However, the imagery I used may have been in poor taste. For that, I apologize.
The police chief told WJBK that the Facebook post was inappropriate.
“We work in a city that’s certainly well over 80 percent African American,” Craig said, “and to post something that has to do with a hate group like the Ku Klux Klan is problematic.”
The chief could not be immediately reached for comment.
