A white Missouri police officer has been placed on unpaid leave after he appeared in a racially charged music video wearing his uniform and carrying a sign reading “cops lives matter.”
St. Joseph patrolman Zackary Craft also is seen reaching for his gun in the video for “Before This Bomb Blows Up (Racism Goes Both Ways)” by Josh Smith, a white rapper from the Kansas City suburb of Independence who performs as J.Smitty. The sign is a reference to the “Black Lives Matter” movement that has focused attention on the killing of blacks by police.
“The department in no way condones the video in its entirety,” said police spokesman Capt. Jeff Wilson. He said Craft is on leave pending a due-process hearing but declined to say when the hearing would take place or how the video came to the department’s attention.
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