Police to boycott Beyonce concerts

Several police unions across the United States (US) are calling for police officers to refuse working paid off-duty security for Beyonce's upcoming concerts in the US as they feel her new song "Formation" has an anti-law enforcement message and is causing "anti-cop" sentiments.

The New York State Fraternal Order of Police had already called for a boycott of Beyonce's Super Bowl halftime show.

And now the Miami Fraternal Order of Police was the first to officially urge a boycott of her upcoming concerts after her performance, with Sergeant Javier Ortiz of the Miami Police Department posting this open call:

The hashtag #BlueLivesMatter has been trending ever since and was used more than 14,000 times in the past week alone.

Other police unions, like the Massachusetts and Dallas Police Associations, are starting to discuss whether to support the boycott as well. According to CNN, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations pledged support for the boycott.

An anti law enforcement video?

So why are some police officers so upset with Queen Bey? It all started one day ahead of the Super Bowl, when Beyonce released a surprise music video for her new song "Formation." It's her first new single since November 2014 and it immediately caused a bang.

The video, which was released via her husband Jay-Z's "Tidal" streaming service and is available to stream and download for free, is set in New Orleans and is an ode to Beyonce's roots in Louisiana. In the video, she celebrates African American life and blackness.

But what really upset police officers was that Beyonce also dismisses police brutality in the video, which starts off with her sitting on top of a sinking police car, and later features a graffiti reading "Stop Shooting Us," with a young black boy wearing a hoodie and dancing in front of police officers - apparently an allusion to Michael brown, who was shot dead by a police officer.

Controversial Super Bowl performance

The real backlash started after Beyonce performed this very song at the Super Bowl halftime show. The 20-time Grammy winner paid tribute to the #BlackLivesMatter movement when she entered the stage backed up by a team of black women dressed as "Black Panthers," calling for justice for an African American man killed recently by police in San Francisco.

Her political message quickly made waves, with #BlackLivesMatter activists like Deray McKesson, who is currently running for mayor in Baltimore, congratulating her.

But others weren't so excited by the Super Bowl performance, as the dancers' black berets recall the 1960s anti-racist black revolutionary group "The Black Panthers." The movement called for an end to police brutality, but some of its members were also convicted of murdering officers.

After the performance, one #BlueLivesMatter supporter tweeted this picture of a Black Panther member who was convicted of a police murder in the 1970s. She fled to Cuba and is still one of the FBI's most-wanted criminals.

Another police supporter commented that he wouldn't risk his life for someone who is calling for his death.

Boycott causes backlash

The police's boycott, however, isn't received well among black-rights supporters, and turns out to be amplifying the #BlackLivesMatter debate.

Last week, just three anti-Beyonce protesters attended a rally against the singer.

A much larger number of black-rights supporters were present at the planned anti-Beyonce protest, including this woman, who called for an end to police brutality.

So far, Beyonce herself hasn't commented on the boycott or the protests.