Boots Riley of the Coup has been charged with – you won’t believe this – profanity. No, that’s not a typo. Boots Riley was at Cajun festival in Norfolk, VA last weekend as a guest of the band Galactic. Apparently, he incurred the wrath of Norfolk families by using “embellishment of the F-word” while introducing band members.

Foul language is “not something we tolerate at any of our events,” said Karen Scherberger the event’s executive director. “There are families here. It’s so inappropriate.”

They eventually booted Boots Riley off the stage. He cooperated and left peacefully. Fair enough, but the organizers didn’t stop there.

Festevents, which organizes Town Point Park festivals, posted an apology on its Web site, saying it regretted “our guests were exposed to profanity… the musician responsible has been charged with abusive language by the Norfolk Police Department.”
[Source: Virginia Plot]

This raises so many questions. Why bring your kids to an after-dark event where profane words just might happen to fly around? Did they even bother to check out The Coup’s music beforehand? Were the performing artists duly informed that they could not use profanity at the show? Maybe I’m being naive here, but charging a man with profanity in that setting doesn’t make any sense.