Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani blasted Beyoncé’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl — accusing her of using her platform to “attack police officers.”
“This is football, not Hollywood,” Giuliani fumed Monday morning on “FOX & Friends.”
At Sunday night’s big game, the singer used her moments in the spotlight to highlight racial tension — with her dancers wearing berets similar to those worn by the Black Panthers.
Prior to the performance, some of Beyoncé’s dancers posed for a picture with their fists raised to the sky, evoking the black power salute by two prominent athletes during the 1968 Olympic Games.
They also snapped a similar shot while holding a sign that said “Justice 4 Mario Woods,” referring to the 26-year-old man shot dead in December by San Francisco police.
“I thought that she used it as a platform to attack police officers, who are the people who protect her and protect us and keep us alive,” Giuliani said. “And what we should be doing, in the African-American community and in all communities, is build up respect for police officers and focus on the fact that when something does go wrong, OK, we’ll work on that.”
“But the vast majority of police officers risk their lives to keep us safe,” he added.
This isn’t Beyoncé’s first time bringing the cause of groups such as Black Lives Matter into her performances.
Her latest single, “Formation,” features scenes of a young black boy dancing in front of riot police, who signal their surrender by putting their hands up — referencing the “Hands up, don’t shoot” anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement inspired by the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
And on Friday, Beyoncé’s hubby, Jay Z, announced he would donate the $1.5 million raised from last year’s Tidal charity concert to Black Lives Matter.