Man arrested for singing 'Kung Fu Fighting'

[Dare]

you have to be kidding me



Singer says police questioned him after Asian man filed a race complaint

..Simon Ledger, 34, told Britain's The Sun newspaper that he and his band were performing the 1970s classic at the Driftwood Beach Bar on the Isle of Wight off the southern coast of England.

"We were performing Kung Fu Fighting, as we do during all our sets," he told the newspaper. "People of all races were loving it. Chinese people have never been offended by it before."

But Ledger told The Sun an Asian man walking by with his mother hurled an expletive and made an obscene hand gesture at the performers during the Sunday afternoon performance, then took a photo with his cell phone.

"We hadn't even seen them when we started the song. He must have phoned the police," The Sun quoted him as saying.

The man claimed he was "subjected to racial abuse," police told BBC News, and complained to the police the same evening.

'I thought it was a joke'
Ledger told The Sun that police called him later that evening — while he was eating at a Chinese restaurant — to arrange a meeting. It was at that meeting that police arrested him, Ledger said.

.The BBC report said police released Ledger after his arrest, intending to question him further at a later date.

"An investigation into this allegation is continuing to establish the full circumstances surrounding what happened," a Hampshire Constabulary spokesman told the network.

"I thought it was a joke but they were serious," Ledger told The Sun. "They seemed pretty amazed but said the law is the law and it was their duty. It's political correctness gone potty (a British term for crazy)."

The owner of the bar defended Ledger, telling the newspaper that he doesn't believe the song or the singer are racist, and that there "is no way he would abuse anyone."

[Ian]

This was absolutely pathetic, British people have no rights whatsoever.

[Scott]

The problem isn't the rights you have or not, it is that someone has decided to tell the police how to interpret your laws (letter of the law and all that BS).  Clearly something has gone wrong in either the writing of the laws or the management of the police.

I'd be chuckling if the police started questioning me about singing a song like that (if I could sing), I certainly wouldn't take it seriously - who would?

[cosworth151]

Mad. Absolutely freaking mad! 

[lkjohnson1950]

Try to buy a DVD of Disney's "Song of the South". It was removed from the catalog after it was deemed racially insulting for it's black stereotype. Worse, many American school boards have attempted to ban or restrict Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" as promoting racial stereotypes.

Lonny

[Dare]

They even changed some words to My Old Kentucky Home
sung right before the start of the Kentucky Derby,ran onthe first
Saturday in May

[cosworth151]

Up here in Ohio, we just went with a second Official State Song. Almost nobody knows the old one, Beautiful Ohio. So the people of Ohio convinced the Legislature to name a second Official State Song: Hang On, Sloopy! 

This sounds like your police have gone as batty as ours have over here.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1381373/Kung-Fu-Fighting-racist-row-Death-common-sense-police-losing-plot.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

[John S]

Up here in Ohio, we just went with a second Official State Song. Almost nobody knows the old one, Beautiful Ohio. So the people of Ohio convinced the Legislature to name a second Official State Song: Hang On, Sloopy! 

Why not the much recorded "Banks of the Ohio"? I'd have thought that would be more specific to the state. 

[cosworth151]

Hang On, Sloopy was first recorded by The McCoys, from Dayton, OH. It's been an unofficial fight song for Ohio State University since the 60's. Play it on the juke box in just about any bar in the state, and people will stand up, cheer and sing along. They'll chant O-H-I-O on the 8 beat breaks in the chorus.

Shortly after Ohio adopted Sloopy, the state of Washington voted Louie, Louie in as their state song.