"Chicago police are looking for a black male in his mid-20s who resembles the popular rap artist Ice Cube"

Written by Eric Olsen
Published July 23, 2003

This is a strange story: the Chicago police issued a community alert describing a man suspected in a series of sexual assaults as looking like Ice Cube. I guess if he does he does, but then a local TV station relayed the alert over the air and played an Ice Cube video to go along with it. Anyone not paying close attention could have easily come to the conclusion that the Cube was somehow involved. Then everyone apologized:

    "We acknowledged the information should not have been on the alert," Police spokesman David Bayless said Tuesday. "We took immediate corrective action. We apologize to Ice Cube for what was an honest mistake and came with no ill intent."

    The community alert was reissued without a reference to Ice Cube.

    Filming had begun Monday on "Barbershop 2," a sequel to the popular movie starring the Compton, Calif., native, said Matt Labov, a spokesman for Ice Cube.

    Labov said cast members were watching as WBBM-TV broadcast the video.

    "This is an unfortunate and hurtful situation for Ice Cube," Labov said. "That his good name ever came up in association with the events currently taking place in Chicago's Wicker Park area is damaging to Ice Cube as a father, husband and artist."

    Both the police department and the TV station have since apologized, Labov said. [AP]

I'm glad no one tried to turn this into any kind of racial incident - it's just a stupidity incident.

Career media professional Eric Olsen is honored to be the founder and publisher of Blogcritics.org, which, quite frankly, rules - as do his wife and four children.
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"Chicago police are looking for a black male in his mid-20s who resembles the popular rap artist Ice Cube"
Published: July 23, 2003
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Section: Video
Filed Under: Culture: Media, Music: News, Video: News, Video: Television
Writer: Eric Olsen
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#1 — September 23, 2005 @ 00:18AM — chicago detective [URL]

Maybe Ice Cube actually is the perp

#2 — September 23, 2005 @ 01:54AM — Luke

If you're going to issue an apology show some fuckin respect and call the man MISTER Cube.

#3 — September 23, 2005 @ 05:10AM — Bob A. Booey [URL]

If the New York Times did a story on Ice Cube, would they call him "Mr. Cube"? I wonder. They'd probably call him by his real last name.

That is all.

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