›› Beyonce’s concert draws protests.
Two opposing demonstrations outside NRG Stadium provided fans with pre-concert activity well before Beyoncé Knowles Carter took the stage for her Formation World Tour Saturday night.
While fans decked out in sky-high heels, form-fitting black dresses and Ivy Park T-shirts made their way toward the stadium, two groups with their own defined dress code held peaceful demonstrations.
The first took place at the corner of Kirby and Murworth, right outside NRG Stadium. Nation of Islam members, dressed in suits and bowties, formed a couple of rows about eight people deep, arms clasped either in front or behind their backs. They gathered in response to another demonstration, set to take place an hour later.
The Coalition of Police and Sheriffs — known as COPS — held a news conference to challenge the pop priestess’ Black Lives Matter, Black Panther and other political themes they considered “anti-police” during her halftime Super Bowl performance in February. Dressed in blue“Police Lives Matter” T-shirts, they planned to shine a thin blue light after sunset toward the stadium. Boycott urged
Leaders of law enforcement organizations in Miami, New York and other cities urged officers nationwide to boycott working security for Beyoncé whenthe tour launched in April.
In response to the COPS demonstration, members of the Nation of Islam gathered and asked her fans —collectively called “The Beyhive” — to swarm with them in counterprotest.
“Beyoncé is Houston’s treasure to the world,” said Robert S. Muhammad, an activist in Houston and southwest regional representative for the Nation of Islam. “We don’t have to agree with everything she does, but we do agree that she deserves in her hometown to be received as the ‘Queen Bey’ that she is, and we’re just part of the Beyhive.”
Muhammad said the organization has dispatched its men — called the Fruit of Islam — to protect Beyoncé as her Formation tour travels across the nation.
He said the show of support also reinforces the message that the Nation of Islam will not “allow uniformed, armed members of law enforcement to intimidate our cultural icons.”
Muhammad said the Super Bowl performance was pro-black and not antipolice.
“That was a tribute to the women of the Black Panther Party,” which was founded in 1966 as a black social justice movement and celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, he said. “It’s antipolice brutality.”
About 25 people gathered at the COPS demonstration 1.5 miles away. Their demonstration stayed a distance from the concert for a reason, COPS president Tony Ragsdale said.
“We didn’t want to make anything offensive,” Ragsdale said. “We didn’t want to do anything that might bring out any type of clash between our organization or any others.”
Beyoncé commented on the Super Bowl performance during a wide-ranging interview that appears in the May 2016 edition Elle magazine.
“I mean, I’m an artist and I think the most powerful art is usually misunderstood. But anyone who perceives my message as anti-police is completely mistaken. I have so much admiration and respect for officers and the families of officers who sacrifice themselves to keep us safe. But let’s be clear: I am against police brutality and injustice. Those are two separate things. If celebrating my roots and culture during Black History Month made anyone uncomfortable, those feelings were there long before a video and long before me. I’m proud of what we created and I’m proud to be a part of a conversation that is pushing things forward in a positive way.” ‘We got her back’
Houston Police Officers’ Union President Ray Hunt, whose 5,100 members work at the Houston Police Department, said his organization did not boycott Be yoncé or the extra security work offered at NRG.
“This is all voluntary, and my information is that the spaces quickly filled up,” he said. “If this was a protest of someone who was advocating killing cops and claiming that we just routinely violate people’s rights, I’m sure you’d have a lot of people refusing, and we’ d probably be saying that we wouldn’t want our officers working there, but we haven’t seen that with her.”
COPS is a Houston affiliate of the International Union of Police Associations — which is chartered by the AFL-CIO. The local organization has about 1,000 members.
According to its website, members of the board of directors include officers from the Pasadena Police Department, HPD, the Harris County Sheriff’ s Department, the Metro Police Department and several Harris County constable’s offices.
Beyoncé’s camp has not issued a statement about either hometown demonstration.
Springer also questioned why the Nation of Islam was responding to their protest.
“There was certainly no needfor Louis Farrakhan to call out his legions of Fruit of Islam,” the COPS lawyer said. “We don’t call on our members to do anything but show up. He’s calling on his members to show up and protect Beyoncé.”
Muhammad emphasized that the demonstration isn’t simply about Beyoncé.
“It is about our cultural icons and artists who may express social justice issues, speak to poverty, speak to inequities, injustice or police brutality,” he said. “Everyone has a right to protest, but I have a right to say: You will not intimidate our cultural icons whenthey speak to our condition. We got her back.”