NYPD Says Cardi B Wrong To Rip Police After Event At Brooklyn School Is Postponed
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Cardi B has put the New York City police on blast, taking aim at the department on a social media rant.
While many would say she's entitled to her opinion, the NYPD said the rapper has it all wrong, CBS2's Dave Carlin reported Wednesday.
Cardi B has close to 50 million followers on Instagram. That's where she published a message, full of profanity and anger, directed at the NYPD.
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The Bronx-born entertainer blasted police because she appears to believe the department played a direct role in stopping a back-to-school drive Aug. 27 at Brooklyn Democracy Academy in Brownsville.
The Department of Education said the event was set, good to go. Then the superstar said she might just show up and that changed everything.
A DOE spokeswoman told CBS2 security concerns were not raised by the NYPD. Instead, it was the school's principal who hit the pause button, postponing but not canceling the event.
The NYPD said it and didn't even know about the event until Cardi B posted her rant, where she begins talking about the organizer, who is her friend, Star Brim.
"My homegirl Star, she was having a school giveaway in Brooklyn on the 27th. And now the (expletive) got shut down," Cardi B. wrote on Instagram.
CBS2 reached out to Brim, who said on her own social media she is "over the back to school event" and "plz no more [direct messages]."
Cardi B deleted the original Instagram video.
Some of her fans said she overreacted just a bit.
"I like her but she went overboard," one young woman said.
"For her, publicity keeps money coming in," one young man added.
Cardi B has talked about other controversies in her life, including a fight in a city strip club involving her entourage that landed her in legal trouble. The interview was with CBS2's own Maurice Dubois.
"Am I ever embarrassed about anything that I do? No," Cardi B said.
When asked if it's good or bad for business, the rapper said, "You know, a lotta people like to say, 'All publicity is good publicity.' To me, it's not. Because that takes away of people paying attention to your craft."
While this episode is being dismissed by many as a misunderstanding, law enforcement expert Manny Gomez said there is fallout for officers on the streets when a celebrity gets this angry at the department.
"Especially when they did nothing wrong and did everything right is just adding gasoline to the fire," Gomez said.
Cardi B has not apologized to the NYPD. For now, she's just showing some uncharacteristic silence.
A date for the rescheduled back-to-school event has not been announced.