Disturbing footage has emerged of someone singing a song that not only celebrates Michael Brown's death, but makes fun of it. Brown, 18, was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo. in August. A St. Louis County grand jury elected not to indict Wilson in November.
According to TMZ, the video was filmed during a charity golf event at the Elks Lodge in Glendale, Calif. last Monday. It's there that performer and club member Gary Fishell sang the parody of "Bad, Bay Leroy Brown," which featured the following lyrics:
And he's dead, dead Michael Brown
Deadest man in the whole damn town
His whole life's long gone
Deader than a roadkill dog
TMZ adds that the event was thrown by Joe Myers, a 32-year veteran of the LAPD. Furthermore, about half of the event's attendees were police officers, several of whom are retired like Myers. One attendee began filming Fishell's remarkably offensive song out of shock that no one was saying or doing anything about it.
Myers told TMZ that he can't "[D]ictate what [Fishell sings]," adding the familiar First Amendment excuse of "This is America. We can say what we want. This is a free America."
An attorney for Fishell, a former private investigator who worked with the Federal Government, told the outlet that his client is now aware that the song was "off color and in poor taste." The lawyer added that Fishell sang the song because he figured "[T]he room would get a kick out of it."
Noting that the Lodge "[Does not] stand for any racist things like [Fishell's song]," a trustee said that hundreds of members were irate about what transpired.
Here are more lyrics, just so you get the full scope of Fishell's brand of "humor":
Michael Brown learned a lesson about a messin'
With a badass policeman
And he's bad, bad Michael Brown
Baddest thug in the whole damn town
Badder than old King Kong
Meaner than a junkyard dog
Two men took to fightin'
And Michael punched in through the door
And Michael looked like some old Swiss cheese
His brain was splattered on the floor
[via TMZ]