Posted on 07/10/2013 12:42:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Tyler Sargent was out for a nighttime run in Prospect Park two weeks ago, at around 9 p.m., when he heard some familiar music in the distance. It was the "Imperial March" — also known as Darth Vader's theme song — and it was growing louder. That's when an NYPD cruiser drove by him, "blasting" the song "at a volume that surely must have drowned out any emergencies being dispatched from the Death Star," Sargent (who happens to be the former bassist for the band Clap Yours Hands Say Yeah) tells Daily Intelligencer.
"The cops were laughing like stoned high-school kids as they drove by," he added.
It turns out this wasn't an isolated incident. On March 29, also just around 9 p.m., Scott Rosann was walking his dog on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. The TV editor tells us he heard the "Imperial March" and thought to himself, "Huh. You don't hear THAT coming out of car windows in this neighborhood very often." He was surprised to discover that the car in question was a police cruiser, its emergency lights bouncing off the nearby buildings as it headed away from him on 12th Street.
"No doubt whatsoever that that song was coming from that car," Rosann says. "No other squad cars arrived on the scene, so I was deprived of hearing the 'Raiders March' as an encore."
It's not clear whether the incidents are the work of a single pair of cops or if the practice is more widespread. We reached out to the NYPD for comment and never heard back.
Why the "Imperial March"? Maybe they use it as a pump-up song on the way to a bust, à la "Ride of the Valkyries" in Apocalypse Now:
If that's the case, though, the "Imperial March" is probably not the best choice for a police department already dealing with a reputation for abusing its power. Darth Vader, after all, spent his spare time blowing up entire planets and Force-choking to death people who displeased him. In fact, Occupiers around the country use to love to mockingly serenade police with the "Imperial March":
But maybe that's the point — taking a song that was once used as a caustic commentary on police aggression and embracing it, with pride, as their own.
It is. And the NYPD are apparently proud of being storm troopers.
yet they take great umberance if they hear you playing “f* the police” or “cop killa”
Rock on, NYPD! If I was a cop, I’d do the same.
well, they have about the equivalent aim with their weapons as storm troopers...
I tried to convince a high school class to use the Imperial March as their graduation ceremony processional tune. They destroyed plenty in their day so it made sense to me. My suggestion, though quite popular with the kids, was over ruled by a teacher with no sense of humor.
Like people on this thread?
That was the Gorbachev theme song on Rush’s radio show whenever there was a Gorbachev update. Rush would say the press had Gorbasms whenever the guy came to the U.S. Still makes me laugh.
Back in ‘68 the Miami riot, a fireman friend was a fire truck driver.
I made a cassette recording of Flight of the Valkyries for him.
He drove into the heart of the riot in Overtown blasting the music on the truck loudspeakers. They ere taking gunfire from rooftops.
(he was a Huey side gunner in Viet Nam.)
And yes he got in trouble.
I like this version better.
Back in the day we used to key the mic whenever the local radio station was playing the theme from “Hill Street Blues”.
Gave the dispatchers a chuckle.
Never tried it through the PA speaker, though.
Back in my day, I used to broadcast bluegrass music (once in a while) through my phone into the intercom, over a 10 acre staging area at the steel plant where I worked. My shipping manager tells me that the truckers loved it. Oh, and it was in Detroit.
LAPD around 1974, had a guy that liked to play a cassette of the Tarzan yell on the PA speaker after midnight. Guess what part of town.
I was (ahem) riding in the back of a Detroit patrol car back in 1987, and it had a cassette player hanging from the rearview. I only remember it because it was playing some Bruce Springsteen song about getting shot, and the cop on the passenger side was asking the driver, “do we need to listen to this?”
I hate rap. How would they feel if I were blasting “I Fought The Law”?
Turn some Redshirted Ensigns loose on them, they’d be toast. B-)
Real good way of alerting any perps who may be about — oh, and of course, annoying their employ—err, civilian tax slaves.
I wish it was longer.
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