Councilman pushes to Ban Hip-Hop
A Fort Myers City Councilman is looking at ways to decrease the amount of criminal activity in the downtown area and a ban on hip-hop music ...
A Fort Myers City Councilman is looking at ways to decrease the amount of criminal activity in the downtown area and a ban on hip-hop music concerts was one proposal to meet that goal.
Councilman Warren Wright claims the downtown area experiences higher levels of criminal activity when hip-hop concerts are held downtown.
He wants to see increased police activity and even mentioned possibly banning the concerts completely.
But the city attorney found constitutionally, that may not be possible.
Members from the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Fort Myers say this proposal has some discriminatory undertones, linking hip-hop music to violence.
"Some of the people who may like hip-hop music may tend to be people of violence, but that same person who may commit violence at a hip-hop concert may commit violence at a church," said Willie green, President of the SCLC.
The Fort Myers Police Department has no statistics showing that increased violence is linked to the hip-hop concerts.
The Fort Myers City Council will take up this issue at its next meeting.
