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Legal
Badu charged over strip video
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 6 April 2010
Erykah Badu has been charged with disorderly conduct for stripping off in public while filming a video for her new song ‘Window Seat’.
The video, inspired by a similar striptease pop promo made by New York indie pop outfit Matt & Kim in their home city last year, was recorded in Dallas back on 13 Mar. In Badu’s video the sequence finishes with the naked singer pretending to be shot dead at the spot where JFK was killed in 1963. Blue blood pours from her head to spell the word “groupthink” while a voiceover says: “People are quick to assassinate what they do not understand … this is what we have become … afraid to respect the individual”.
Although the Badu video, seemingly filmed without a permit and with no extras in the crowd around her (Matt & Kim had both), caused some media coverage and shouts of abuse when filmed, it was after the event that a formal complaint was made to the police. Actually, lots of complaints were made to police once the video appeared on the net, but one came from someone who was actually there, and it is that complaint that has been used as the basis for the disorderly conduct charge. Badu will have to pay a $500 fine to avoid further action being taken.
A spokesman for Texas police told reporters that his office had had “people calling from all across the country to express their concern”, before adding: “Having [a complaint from one] witness that was there, is what let us file the charges. After much discussion, we feel that these charges best fit her conduct. She disrobed in a public place without regard to individuals and small children who were close by”.
The complaining witness, Ida Espinosa, declined to comment when approached by the AP on Friday.
