A Massachusetts DJ who was cited for disorderly conduct has been fined for playing N.W.A.’s 1988 song “F—k tha Police,” as police officers attempted to clear an overcrowded bar last fall.
The incident occurred in October inside Shenanigans Pub in Westfield, Massachusetts, after a fire marshal called police to disperse 350 people from the 160-capacity bar.
According to Officer Juanita Mejias, who spoke to MassLive, police had a difficult time getting people to leave, partially because the music being played by 25-year-old Kashawn Harris, known as DJ Boogy, was so loud.
After officers requested Harris temporarily turn off the music, he instead began playing “F—k tha Police,” Mejias claimed.
Listen to the song:
***Language Warning***
“I believed at that time the combination of alcohol, the excessive amount of people in the bar and the song that the DJ chose to play at that time was an intentional act by the DJ to incite the crowd which showed a reckless disregard for public safety,” Mejias wrote in a report of the incident.
Harris, meanwhile, has taken issue with Mejiias’s account of the events.
“I had no intention of inciting a riot, it was just college kids having fun,” Harris told the outlet. “For them to even think I was trying to start riots was frustrating for me. That’s not my kind of background, that’s not where I come from.”
Harris claims the song was scheduled well before police arrived, and the bar was mostly empty by the time he played it.
MassLive reports Harris was found responsible for disorderly conduct on Mar. 11 and ordered to pay a $50 fine.