Ice-T, rapper and actor, who has spent most of his career in Hollywood playing the role of a police officer on the hit series Law & Order: SVU for well over two decades, was recently captured on body camera footage getting into a heated verbal exchange with an officer in New Jersey during a traffic stop. You know, this probably shouldn’t be shocking considering the musician’s punk band, Body Count, wrote a song called “Cop Killer.” Just saying.
The rapper, who’s real name is Tracy Lauren Marrow, was pulled over by a Hudson County Sheriff’s officer in North Bergen, New Jersey. The video shows that the officer pulled the actor over for missing a front license plate on his Porsche. It turns out that the registration for the vehicle lapsed back in 2021.
Here’s more on this from Breitbart:
The officer informs Ice-T about the registration issue and the actor replies that the Motor Vehicle Commission office is close by and he was going there to renew his registration. The officer then asks if Ice-T has a reservation at the MVC, to which the actor replies, “I don’t need one. They know me,” TMZ reported. In New Jersey the motor vehicles department suggests that drivers make an advanced appointment to conduct their business with the department, but appointments are not required and walk-ins are accommodated.
The MVC issue continued to be a sticking point for the officer and the actor then suggests, “Why don’t you follow me right to this garage, the DMV is right here,” and adds, “You don’t gotta be that serious about this. Well, you can, but you don’t have to.” The officer replies that it is serious and that the actor isn’t supposed to be driving anywhere without legal registration and then tells Ice-T he is going to have the car towed to the police impound.
“You’re not gonna tow my fucking vehicle, let me park my car right here,” Ice-T said and added that he could just walk to the MVC, get the sticker for the car, and bring it back.
The officer answers Ice-T by saying, “You’re not gonna move your car, give me the keys right now and I’m gonna tow your vehicle. Try to be more respectful of me and I’m gonna be more respectful to you.” The rap artist exits the car and hands the officer his keys and then aggressively says, “Give me my paperwork, you’re an a–hole.” He then looks directly into the body cam and states, “Give me my f—ing paperwork, get this on camera.”
“As the actor begins using his cell phone to record the incident, the officer calls for his supervisor. Upon arriving, the supervising sergeant decides to allow the actor to walk to the MVC and get his new sticker, then walk back and get his car without it being towed,” Breitbart said. The officer hands the rapper his keys and says, “Just show some respect.”
Ice-T, brimming with ugly defiance, says, “I don’t have to.” He then leaves the scene.
Before becoming an actor, Ice-T became the center of controversy with his band Body Count when they released their infamous tune, Cop Killer, in 1992. The song is unabashed hate for law enforcement and suggests that black people should kill police officers. The rapper insisted that the song was not a call to murder cops, but was an artistic presentation of a particular type of character.
“This song is about somebody who is fed up with police brutality,” he went on to say at the time, according to Yahoo News. “It’s not a call to arms. It’s a cry of frustration from a character in a song. If you believe that I’m promoting violence, then you haven’t been listening.”
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Ice-T ultimately removed the song from future pressings of the album in order to keep the negative press from causing issues for the label.