Airbag

Police officers in Colorado Springs have found the root of all crime, at least at home: music. The New York Times reported today that police officers in Colorado attribute rising gang violence to the growing hiphop and rap scene:

“We don’t want to broad-brush hip-hop music altogether,” said Lt. Skip Arms, a police spokesman, “but we’re looking at a subcomponent that typically glorifies, promotes criminal behavior and demeans women.”

Ok, first off, Skip Arms? Is that your name? Seriously? Secondly, Skip, based on your data, you might want to watch out for anyone listening to The Velvet Underground (the potential perpetrators/listeners are probably of your generation). Consider Heroin from the former rock sensation:

I don't know just where I'm going
But I'm gonna try for the kingdom, if I can
cause it makes me feel like I'm a man
When I put a spike into my vein
And Ill tell ya, things aren't quite the same
When I'm rushing on my run
And I feel just like jesus son
And I guess that I just dont know

Clearly, that's a totally different situation though, right? They're only singing about putting a highly addictive and mind altering substance into the bloodstream. That's totally legal... And after listening to the VU, there surely wasn't anyone curious about heroin.
Skip's colleague had this to say:

“When you have music that says it’s basically O.K. to treat women poorly, to steal things and to confront and shoot police officers,” said Lt. Harris, “you’ll attract a small percentage of the population that wants to lead the thug life.”

Right on Harris! You've got it. The key word is small. As in, if Colorado Spingers were listening to opera and the lyrics involved throwing massive amounts of tea into the bay, the idea would cross a fractional number of listeners' mind. Whether they acted on it or not is up to them, not the music. The point here is that there's always been edgy music exploring taboo subjects, it doesn't make people want to kill or whatever. In fact, it's probably better than just suppressing the ideas until there's some kind of eruptive meltdown and all hell -which until then had been retained- bursts out causing chaos. But you're probably right. So go ahead, blare the siren when Tupac is on the radio, Alex and his droogs must definitely be on the street. It's all in a day's work for Colorado's finest.