Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 9, 1993 TAG: 9302090361
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`COP KILLER'
IF THE refrain sounds familiar, it's because you've heard this song before. Patrick Mannix is trying to drag an Abingdon record store owner back to court, charging again that he is selling music harmful to juveniles.The vigilant Mannix already had been rebuffed by a Washington County grand jury, which last year refused to indict storeowner Victor Vanover for offering for sale a cassette tape of Ice-T's controversial rap album "Body Count."
The vigilant Mannix had been penalized, as well, by a Washington County civil jury, which last month ordered him to pay Vanover $55,000 for malicious prosecution.
And on Friday, a prosecutor told Mannix that his second charge against Vanover will not be pursued.
Is Mannix, so vigilant up till now, just not paying attention?
The grand jury's refusal to indict Vanover may have had as much to do with the question of whether he actually sold the tape to Mannix's 15-year-old son (Mannix could not produce a receipt) as with the storeowner's freedom to do so under First Amendment guarantees of free speech. Perhaps Mannix thinks the constitutional issue hasn't been settled.
That is unclear, because Mannix isn't talking to the news media about why he took out the second warrant. He did say last month that he believes other people in Washington County think, as he does, that young people should not be listening to "Body Count," in particular one obscenity-laced, hate-filled track called "Cop Killer."
On that last point, he's probably right. It's a pretty safe bet that many people there and across the country don't think their youngsters should be exposed to some of the music produced today, not to mention many of the movies and much of the programming that comes across cable television. Parental screening is, to put it mildly, advisable.
There's no need, however, to screen them for the rest of the population, thanks anyway.
Yes, "Cop Killer" was a brutal song, so frightening that the public outcry against it last summer forced Ice-T to pull it from release. The public did what no court of law should dare, draw a line between what it will tolerate and what it will not.
So be it. All the more reason to wonder, though, why Mannix should try to make his case all over again. This tune sounds more personal than principled.