Hip hop star begs US to ban all guns as he fears 'children aren't safe'
Rapper Flavor Flav has called on the US to ban all firearms - as he believes "our kids aren't safe".
The 66-year-old hip hop star, who founded group Public Enemy, says the "wrong people" have too much access to guns. This is despite he himself spending time in jail after he was charged with attempted murder for shooting his neighbour in 1993.
But seeing his kids grow up since, Flavor Flav - real name William Jonathan Drayton Jr - has said he has taken time to reflect on what he describes as "an epidemic of gun violence" in the US. The musician has expressed his opinion in a newspaper column today - Independence Day - in the wake of several active shooter incidents, including one at Apalachee High School in Georgia, which saw two children and a teacher die.
"This happens so often, we have started to become numb to it as a society. Our schools aren't safe and our kids aren't safe. This is because gun protection laws are weak," Flav wrote for Newsweek.
The father of nine, from the state of New York, added the country is caught in a "epidemic of gun violence with no sign we can stop or change course." He blamed the lack of gun laws, which he called "domestic errorism". The rapper, who said no civilian needs a semi-automatic weapon, added: "Stop putting a price tag on the heads of our children."
But Flav himself shot his neighbour in 1993, for which he was charged with attempted murder and spent 90 days in jail. He refers to this in his Newsweek piece, inssting he "would know" that guns are "falling into the hands of the wrong people".
"Guns are falling into the hands of the wrong people. I would know. I went to jail because of guns. I ended up on Rikers Island. So I am speaking from first-hand experience. Back in the day, guns and drugs were brought into Black communities. It was a time when we were taught that guns and drugs equaled power. We all had guns. There was peer pressure; a gun felt like a necessity to protect yourself from gang wars. This helped create a system of criminals who were forced into legalised slavery," Flav reflected.
He then compared those times to the modern day, which he stresses is full of "fear and power". The star added: "Fear is a powerful, short-term motivator. We need to flip it so it can break through to be a positive and valuable resource. Let our fear of losing our children be more powerful than our fear of our next-door neighbour."
Public Enemy, which was nominated for five Grammy Awards between 1990 and 1995, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. They had success with the likes of Give It Up in 1994 and Harder Than You Think in 2007.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- The Guardian
One Day in Southport review – a sombre portrait of how a tragedy was hijacked
Most of the six to 10-year-old girls gathered in the Hart Space dance studio in Southport, Merseyside, on 29 July last year for a Taylor Swift-themed workshop were making friendship bracelets ('It's a very Swiftie thing to do,' says the older sister of one, who was watching them), when 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana burst in with a knife. His attack left two children dead at the scene and another died the next day from her injuries. Six other children, including the sister who was watching, and two adults were injured and taken to hospital. One Day in Southport focuses largely on what happened afterwards interspersed with the memories of the injured older girl and her family, because what happened next was the result of so many social, cultural and political issues that you could spend a lifetime unpacking them. This documentary does the best it can in an hour. It interviews people from different sides of the various debates, and shows social media posts and footage from the riots that sprang up around the country and caught the police and the establishment unawares. The prime minister was left floundering and unable to address the mixture of feelings and motivations behind them quickly or directly enough. The attacker – his name then kept from the public – was quickly arrested. The police held a press conference and described him as a 17-year-old from Lancashire and originally from Cardiff. The latter detail was included to attempt to tamp down the speculation already rife online and in the local area (arising because the one thing witnesses to the attack did know about the stranger was that he was Black) that he was an immigrant, which quickly became an illegal immigrant, which quickly became a Muslim illegal immigrant and ignited all sorts of rage. The usual suspects from the manosphere and others with their own agendas to push then stoked the fires, including Nigel Farage ('It shows how unhappy people are with the state of law and order in this country … Your children don't matter to them, they don't care') and Tommy Robinson, the leader of the far-right anti-Islam English Defence League. The hour tracks the evolution of local grief and anger directed at a specific event into widespread violence and unrest. One of the many YouTubers and other people outside the mainstream media who recorded events is Wesley Winter. He began feeling at one with the righteous fury felt by others. By the time he was filming a few days later in Middlesbrough, he realised that the people walking along a residential street in a Muslim area of the town and smashing windows 'was a very different crowd' and he became frightened that they might turn on him next. A call from his wife trapped in her car as people smashed the windows of vehicles around her led them to leave the area as quickly as possible. His naivete is astonishing, but more admirable than the craven avoidance of those supposedly charged with leading the nation in times of strife to address the difficult, sensitive issues with which the tinderbox had been – and remains – stuffed. Because what have we here? We have a section of the population, that's suffering greatly under the cost of living crisis. This fact has receded from the headlines, but not from life – the housing crisis, the proliferating brutal effects of austerity that the current government seems to be doing nothing to alleviate, and much more. We have people who see the advent of more people to these isles as competition for increasingly scarce resources. Even the co-convener of Stand Up to Racism, Weyman Bennett, makes the point that 'people are protesting against something that is really happening to them … they are rightfully angry' before explaining how this is leveraged and exploited by far-rightwingers (and whatever Reform are pretending to be) so that 'they're blaming the wrong people'. The absence of anyone in authority addressing this, instead of lauding the arrests and sentencing of rioters, was and remains conspicuous. Why not publicly delineate the difference between legitimate concerns and far-right agitation – bring the worried into your fold and denounce those burning mosques and terrifying the asylum seekers in besieged hotels? Because there is a difference and it matters hugely. The documentary gives no facts or figures about immigration, costs or anything else apart from the number of arrests and the 1,000 years-plus total to which rioters were sentenced. It is essentially a mood piece, tracking the development of the hijacking of grief to violent ends and leaving us to draw our own conclusions about where, why and if we would have stepped back to say: 'This has gone too far.' One Day in Southport is on Channel 4 now.
The Independent
14 hours ago
- The Independent
New sentencing dates set for 5 former Memphis, Tennessee, officers in Tyre Nichols case
A judge on Thursday scheduled sentencings in December for five former Memphis police officers convicted of federal charges in the 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols, after the sentencings were delayed when the previous judge in the case surprisingly recused himself. During a hearing, U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman said the five officers would be sentenced the week of Dec. 15. However, she noted those dates could change or be canceled depending on how she rules on several sealed motions, including one for a new trial for three of the men. Lipman said she could rule on the pending motions by mid-September. U.S. District Judge Mark Norris issued a terse order on June 13 saying he was recusing himself, just days before he was supposed to sentence the officers. He offered no further explanation, and the reason for his recusal has not been made public. Lipman was added to the case the same day. Norris later recused himself from a $550 million lawsuit filed by Nichols' mother against the city of Memphis, the police chief and the officers. Lipman also took over that case. Norris had overseen the case since federal indictments were issued in September 2023. He accepted guilty pleas from two of the officers and presided over the trial for the others in October. A flurry of motions were filed under seal after the recusal, including a request by defense attorneys seeking a new trial. It was not clear if any of those filings asked for Norris to step away from the case. It is unusual for a judge to recuse themself from a case between the trial and sentencing. The city of Memphis and its police chief, and the Daily Memphian news outlet, have filed motions to unseal the documents. On Jan. 7, 2023, the officers yanked Nichols from his car, then pepper-sprayed and hit the 29-year-old Black man with a Taser. Nichols fled, and when the five officers, who also are Black, caught up with him, they punched, kicked and hit him with a police baton. Nichols called out for his mother during the beating, which took place just steps from his home. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023. Footage of the beating captured by a police pole camera also showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled with his injuries — video that prompted intense scrutiny of police in Memphis. The beating also sparked nationwide protests and prompted renewed calls for police reform. The five officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith — were fired from the police force and indicted in state and federal court. Bean, Haley and Smith were found guilty in federal court in October of obstruction of justice through witness tampering related to an attempt to cover up the beating. The officers failed to say that they or their colleagues punched and kicked Nichols and broke Memphis Police Department rules when they did not include complete and accurate statements about what type of force they used. Bean and Smith were acquitted of more serious civil rights charges by the federal jury. Haley was found guilty of violating Nichols' civil rights by causing bodily injury and showing deliberate indifference to medical needs. He was also convicted of conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. Bean, Haley and Smith were acquitted in May of all state charges, including second-degree murder. Martin and Mills pleaded guilty in federal court last year to violating Nichols' civil rights by causing death and conspiracy to witness tamper. They did not stand trial in federal court with their former colleagues. Martin and Mills also avoided the trial in state court after reaching agreements to plead guilty there. Both Martin and Mills testified in the federal trial, and Mills also took the stand in the state trial. The officers were part of a special unit The officers were part of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion Unit that was disbanded weeks after Nichols died. The team targeted illegal drugs and guns and violent offenders, and sometimes used force against unarmed people. In December, the U.S. Justice Department said a 17-month investigation showed the Memphis Police Department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people. The investigation also found that the police department conducts unlawful stops, searches, and arrests. In May, the Trump administration announced it was retracting the findings of Justice Department civil rights investigations of police departments, including Memphis, that were issued under the Biden administration. The city has created a task force to address police department reforms. The task force has not announced any recommendations.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Ukraine-Russia war live: Kyiv sets deadline for Putin-Zelensky summit after peace talks fail to stop bombing
Ukraine has called for a peace summit to be held between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky by the end of August, urging Moscow to show it is serious about wanting to end the war. Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's chief delegate at peace talks in Istanbul yesterday, said he presented the Russian side with a proposal for the meeting. "By agreeing to this proposal, Russia can clearly demonstrate its constructive approach,' he said. Ukraine and Russia continued to exchange drone attacks in the early hours today, shortly after the conclusion of the latest round of direct peace talks between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv. While Ukrainian drones hit southern Russian Black Sea areas, killing one person, injuring another and hitting an oil storage depot, Russian drones hit Ukraine 's Black Sea port of Odesa, triggering several fires in residential and other buildings. Meanwhile, Ukrainian prisoners of war have begun returning home after the third round of peace talks in Istanbul after well under an hour without agreement on a ceasefire. Protests in Ukraine after Zelensky approves bill curbing autonomy of anti-corruption agencies Hundreds of people gathered in Ukraine's capital Kyiv to lodge their protest with the Volodymyr Zelensky's administration for passing a controversial bill tightening restrictions on its anti-corruption agencies, presenting the war-hit nation with its biggest domestic turmoil since the Russian invasion in February 2022. Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday passed amendments to allow the country's general prosecutor, appointed by the president, strict control over two anti-corruption bodies – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (Sapo). Protests in Ukraine after Zelensky approves bill weakening anti-corruption bodies Move has alarmed Ukrainians amid fears that chief prosecutor, a Zelensky loyalist, could reassign corruption probes Arpan Rai24 July 2025 07:50 What are the corruption issues behind Ukrainian protests against Zelensky? Thousands of people, including veterans, took to the streets of Kyiv on Tuesday evening to protest against president Volodymyr Zelensky's anti-corruption measures. The demonstrations, which have reportedly spread to Lviv and Dnipro, are the first public protests against the Ukrainian president since the Russian invasion in February 2022. Some of those outside Mr Zelensky's presidential office claimed Ukraine was 'turning into Russia', with placards reading 'welcome to Russia', according to reports. 'We chose Europe, not autocracy,' read one placard by a demonstrator. Another read: 'My father did not die for this.' So why are people protesting, and what are the anti-corruption measures? The Independent takes a closer look below. Ukraine protests: Why are Ukrainians protesting against President Volodymyr Zelensky? Some protesters held placards saying 'Welcome to Russia' after Ukraine made changes to anti-corruption agencies Arpan Rai24 July 2025 07:30 Trump says European allies will pay 100 per cent for military equipment US president Donald Trump touted a recent deal between the US and Nato whereby European allies would purchase weapons and send them to Ukraine as it fights Russia. "They're going to pay the United States of America 100 per cent of the cost of all military equipment, and much of it will go to Ukraine," Mr Trump said in remarks at an artificial intelligence conference in Washington. Arpan Rai24 July 2025 07:15 Russia strikes Ukraine in new drone attack after peace talks end Russian forces staged the latest in a series of mass attacks on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa, triggering several fires in residential and other buildings in the early hours today. In Odesa, regional governor Oleh Kiper said two floors of a multi-storey apartment building had been set ablaze. Other fires broke out on the roof of a two-storey residence, in kiosks and at a petrol station. The city's historic centre, a Unesco World Heritage Site, was also hit, he said. Mr Kiper said details on casualties were being compiled. Arpan Rai24 July 2025 07:00 Zelensky summons chiefs of anti-corruption agencies in bid for unity Volodymyr Zelensky has gathered the chiefs of anti-corruption agencies with law enforcement bosses as he looks to show unity during a fractious week for Kyiv. 'It was a much-needed meeting — a frank and constructive conversation that truly helps,' the Ukrainian president wrote on social media. 'We all share a common enemy: the Russian occupiers. And defending the Ukrainian state requires a strong enough law enforcement and anti-corruption system — one that ensures a real sense of justice.' Mr Zelensky is facing heavy pressure from European officials and the Ukrainian public after his government pushed through laws which will curb the powers of the anti-corruption agencies which have led reform of the country since 2014. At the meeting were representatives of: the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Prosecutor General. Arpan Rai24 July 2025 06:45 EU officials warn of possible setback to joining bloc after Ukraine protests Zelensky's law Top EU officials have warned Ukraine of possible setback to its membership of Nato amid fresh wave of protests in Ukraine over changes in the anti-corruption law. Activists yesterday called for more protests of a new law that they say weakens Ukraine's anti-corruption watchdogs, following the first major anti-government demonstration in over three years of war. Fighting entrenched corruption is crucial for Ukraine's aspirations to join the EU and maintain access to billions of dollars in Western aid in the war. "Limiting the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption agency hampers Ukraine's way towards the EU," German foreign minister Johann Wadephul warned in a post on X. EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius, also on X, noted: "In war, trust between the fighting nation and its leadership is more important than modern weapons — difficult to build and to keep, but easy to lose with one significant mistake by the leadership." Arpan Rai24 July 2025 06:30 Watch: Protests in Ukraine after Zelensky's anti-corruption changes Arpan Rai24 July 2025 06:15 Putin's 'digital gulag': Inside the Kremlin's attempt to construct a spy app to snoop on Russians In just two months, every new digital device in Russia will come equipped with a brand new messenger app, named Max. Beneath its playful white-and-blue logo lies software that experts believe could allow the Kremlin to dramatically expand its capacity to spy on the Russian public. The app, launched in March by Russian tech company VK, will be installed on every new device sold in Russia from September this year. But there are fears it will work as a 'spy programme', allowing Russia's FSB security service to establish a rigid surveillance programme. The app will provide not only a space for messaging and video calls, but will be a broader information system with access to government services and mobile payments, analysts told The Independent. With servers based in Russia, Max will be subject to Russian law, which grants the FSB to have access to certain materials. Inside Putin's attempt to construct a 'digital gulag' spy app to snoop on Russians The Russian President has ordered officials to switch to the Max app to restrict the use of foreign software, according to Ukrainian intelligence Arpan Rai24 July 2025 05:50 Kyiv and Moscow officials hold the shortest talks yet At 40 minutes, the meeting was even shorter than the two sides' previous encounters on 16 May and 2 June, which lasted a combined total of under three hours. Before the talks, the Kremlin had played down expectations, describing the two sides' positions as diametrically opposed and saying no one should expect miracles. Oleksandr Bevz, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said Kyiv had proposed a Putin-Zelensky meeting in August because that would fall within the deadline set by Donald Trump for a deal. Mr Putin turned down a previous challenge from Mr Zelensky to meet in person and has said he does not see him as a legitimate leader because Ukraine, which is under martial law, did not hold new elections when Mr Zelensky's five-year mandate expired last year. Arpan Rai24 July 2025 05:26 Ukraine offered Russia to hold leaders summit by end of August, Kyiv says Kyiv has offered Moscow to hold a leaders' summit aimed at ending the war by the end of August, the head of the Ukrainian delegation at talks in Istanbul said on Wednesday.
