Rappers and the First Amendment

Eugene Volokh  (Washington Post) and Eric Zorn (Chicago Tribune) on the police shutdown of Chief Keef’s holographic performance at  CrazeFest on July 25 in Hammond,  Indiana. Police and Hammond’s mayor may have feared craze-y-ness should Chief Keef appear, given his prior appearances and the nature of his act, as well as the death earlier this month of his friend Marvin Carr.

He also did not have permission to perform, according to the Mayor’s Office.  In a statement (quoted by the Northwest Indiana Gazette), Mayor Thomas McDermott said that Chief Keef did not have such a go-ahead, and that seems to be the reason given that police intervened, but it’s not clear to me why they would have shut down the entire event, which they seem to have done. If that isn’t what happened, I’d like clarification.  But rappers have rights, as Professor Volokh and Mr. Zorn point out.  It’s not clear that Chief Keef’s performance would have incited the disorder that law enforcement and the mayor may also have feared, especially because Chief Keef was appearing not live, but by hologram. According to some of those interviewed who attended the event, there was no violence at the time police shut down it down.  Stay tuned.