Artists Steer Conversation On Violence

In response to the events in Dallas, rapper The Game posted a lengthy statement on his Instagram which touched on the need for people of all races to be unified and show concern for all life.

A fragment of the statement reads: “… we can show the world that when in conflict, we can be UNIFIED as a human race & remain UNITED to decrease the senseless murders & violence across the board on both sides.”

This morning, The Game and Snoop Dogg, led a march to LAPD headquarters that happened to coincide with a recruit graduation ceremony.

The Game was adamant while calling his followers to action via social media that the day’s events should remain peaceful, without drugs or weapons, and the main focus was dialogue. After the march, Snoop and The Game joined Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Chief of Police Charlie Beck for a private meeting, followed by a joint press conference.

“This has never happened in Los Angeles. We’ve never had dialogue with the police. Our dialogue with the police has always been ‘F the police!’ and it has been negative and it’s always been misunderstanding because the communication came after something happened,” Snoop said in an interview with KNX-1070.

“This is before anything happens. Even though something has happened in different states, hasn’t anything happened in Los Angeles, and we feel like ‘if we don’t do this, we’re gonna trigger something to happen,’ so instead of triggering the violence, we would rather trigger the peace.”

Mayor Garcetti said during the press conference; “We just had an extraordinarily powerful meeting, one in which walls came down, boundaries and barriers didn’t exist, and for a moment we grieved commonly for the lives that have been lost.”

Other artists have also addressed the recent events publicly.

Country songstress Maren Morris posted a link on Twitter to an unreleased song she co-wrote years ago called “Dear Hate.” The song discusses the impotence of hate to affect meaningful social change, and the need for love.

John Legend, a prominent voice in the conversation about police violence against black men, tweeted: “Being against cops killing is not equal to being for killing cops. We need peace in our streets.” He then added ““These Dallas shootings are horrific.  Killing these officers is morally reprehensible and completely counterproductive to keeping us safe.”

Kevin Hart was more brief in his thoughts, saying, “We can and will get thru this….I truly believe that LOVE Conquers all. We as people will do better!!!!!”

Dallas police have reported that last night’s shootings were carried out by at least two snipers operating from strategic positions and actively targeting police officers.

The officers were on duty overseeing a peaceful protest of the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, whose deaths in interactions with police were captured on video and went viral.