After a spate of shootings, and already 19 homicides this year, the police in Colorado Springs are saying that gangsta rap is contributing to the violence. They have warned nightclub owners that their places might not be safe if they play this music genre, reports Kevin Moloney for The New York Times.

“We don’t want to broad-brush hip-hop music altogether, but we’re looking at a subcomponent that typically glorifies, promotes criminal behavior and demeans women,” a police spokesman, Lt. Skip Arms, is quoted as saying in the New York Time article.

The actions of the police have angered the hip-hop community.
“This city wants to shut down hip-hop,” said Mike Cross, 26.
“When two cowboys got into an argument at a saloon, went outside and had a draw, nobody blamed the music that was playing at the saloon,” said a local rapper known as B. Serious.