Anti-Bush Shirts Stop Show

An Afro-beat group’s set was stopped short because shopping mall security at Cleveland’s Tower City Center didn’t approve of the anti-Bush shirts the group was wearing.

Mifuné, which was playing as part of the Tri-C Jazz Fest, was about 20 minutes into its set when mall security pulled the plug.

“They said we either remove the shirts, turn them inside out, or get off the stage,” group leader Jacob Fader said. “I said that doing so would be against our core principles and free speech.”

The crowd reportedly booed when Fader tried to explain without the use of the P.A. why the show was being cut short. Pictured on the shirts was the face of George W. Bush crossed out.

Tower City GM Lisa Kreiger told Cleveland’s Plain Dealer that “the band’s attire was distracting and inappropriate.”

Fader said security officers were then brought in to keep order among a murmuring crowd that had gathered near the Tower City water fountain, according to the paper.

He said the group’s performance came to a halt during the song “Supercrush,” which he described as a “song about how the Bush administration separates the wealth, causing the elimination of the middle class.”

When Fader’s father said it was wrong to silence the act, a security cop told him to “shut up,” according to Fader. “My dad said he had the right to free speech and the security guy said, ‘Not in here you don’t.'”