Hours after a former cop announced his intention to perform an Al Jolson routine in blackface to raise money for the six Baltimore police officers indicted in the Freddie Gray case, the venue where it was to take place said it would have nothing to do with such an event.
In a statement online, Michael's Eighth Avenue said no contract was ever signed, and added, "Michael's does not condone blackface performances of any kind." The event was criticized by the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police and Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, with branch president Tessa Hill-Aston calling the idea "very distasteful" with "no sensitivity to the family of Freddie Gray." In April, Gray, an unarmed black man, died a week after suffering injuries while in police custody, which sparked protests across the country.
An attorney for the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police said the officers would not accept any money raised during the event, and an attorney for Sgt. Alicia D. White, one of the indicted officers, told The Baltimore Sun the fundraiser was "racist and in poor taste."
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Bobby Berger, 67, has been performing in blackface for years, The Associated Press reports, and was fired from the Baltimore Police Department in the 1980s for doing it in his spare time. He was eventually reinstated after an appeal, and later retired. Berger has not commented on the statement from Michael's or confirmed the event has been canceled. Earlier Wednesday, he told AP: "There's no racial overtones to this show. There's nothing racial to the show." Berger also said he sold more than 600 tickets for the fundraiser at $45 a pop.
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