{"id":229141,"date":"2016-07-08T12:04:16","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T12:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=229141"},"modified":"2016-07-08T12:04:16","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T12:04:16","slug":"legend-leads-stars-response-to-us-shootings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=229141","title":{"rendered":"Legend leads stars&#8217; response to US shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Oscar-winning singer John Legend has called for &#8220;peace&#8221; after five Dallas police officers were killed and six wounded by sniper fire, during protests against police shooting of black men.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Being against cops killing is not equal to being for killing cops. We need peace in our streets,&#8221; he tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>Legend won the only Oscar for Martin Luther King film Selma, for co-writing its song Glory.<\/p>\n<p>Stars including Beyonce and Jay-Z have reacted to the shootings.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/A00C\/production\/_90327904_legend_tweet.jpg\" alt=\"John Legend tweeted: \" width=\"399\" height=\"224\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>Legend added: &#8220;These Dallas shootings are horrific. Killing these officers is morally reprehensible and completely counterproductive to keeping us safe.<\/p>\n<p>Gunfire broke out at around 20:45 local time on Thursday (01:45 GMT Friday) as demonstrators marched through Dallas in one of several protests in the US over the police use of lethal force against African Americans.<\/p>\n<p>Philando Castile was shot dead at a traffic stop in St Paul, Minnesota, on Wednesday, while Alton Sterling was killed by police a day earlier in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Both incidents were captured on video, reigniting what has become a national debate.<\/p>\n<p>Oscar-winning actress Patricia Arquette added her voice, saying: &#8220;Just heard about shootings in Dallas Please everyone stop killing each other- no more guns. No more violence. No more murder. Horrible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Michael Moore, who directed the Oscar-winning Bowling For Columbine, a documentary about the 1999 Columbine High School massacre which explores US gun culture, tweeted that US President Obama&#8217;s presence was needed.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/13C4C\/production\/_90327908_moore_twitter.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Moore tweeted: \" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>Cynthia Erivo, who won a Tony for her portrayal of Celie in Broadway&#8217;s The Color Purple, tweeted a prayer: &#8220;Dear Lord I ask you to take this world in your arms and brush it with love and peace and understanding. It&#8217;s gone too far.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>US actor and comic Kevin Hart added: &#8220;Peace is the message&#8230; An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Before recent events in Dallas, music power couple Jay Z and Beyonce reacted to the police shootings of black men in America, with Jay Z releasing a new song, Spiritual, on his streaming service Tidal on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>He also released a statement, saying: &#8220;I&#8217;m saddened and disappointed in THIS America &#8211; we should be further along. WE ARE NOT.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He also sent blessings to the families of those who &#8220;lost loved ones to police brutality&#8221;.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-portrait no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/2CDA\/production\/_90328411_jay_z_twitter.jpg\" alt=\"Jay Z on Twitter: \" width=\"976\" height=\"1024\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>Singer Beyonce held a minute&#8217;s silence at her gig in Glasgow on Thursday night for the two shooting victims.<\/p>\n<p>She also put Alton Sterling and Philando Castile&#8217;s names on a big screen while pleading for an end to the &#8220;war on minorities&#8221; in the US.<\/p>\n<p>Canadian rapper Drake said, on Instagram, it was &#8220;impossible to ignore that the relationship between black and brown communities and law enforcement remains as strained as it was decades ago&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;No one begins their life as a hashtag. Yet the trend of being reduced to one continues.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/A20A\/production\/_90328414_perry_twitter.jpg\" alt=\"Katy Perry tweeted: \" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>Musician Justin Timberlake added his voice, tweeting: &#8220;This IS systemic. We MUST DO BETTER. My heart goes out to the families of #AltonSterling and #PhilandoCastile May they both Rest In Peace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Katy Perry linked to video of Alton Sterling being shot, saying: &#8220;You can&#8217;t just go on with your day, you must watch this &amp; we must face this continual outrageousness #ALTONSTERLING.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oscar-winning singer John Legend has called for &#8220;peace&#8221; after five Dallas police officers were killed and six wounded by sniper fire, during protests against police shooting of black men. &#8220;Being against cops killing is not equal to being for killing cops. We need peace in our streets,&#8221; he tweeted. Legend won the only Oscar for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":229145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showbiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=229141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/229145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=229141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=229141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=229141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}