Music

U.S. bill proposed to force musicians to register with police

by Jeremy Mersereau

Forget the cheesesteaks or the Mummers’ Parade: the first thing that’ll come to mind when thinking of Philadelphia is a dangerous expansion of police powers if a proposed bill successfully goes through.

Philadelphia councilman Mark Squilla has put forward a new bill that would require all venue owners in the city to provide the full names, addresses, and personal phone numbers of all entertainers that perform to a registry, which could then be accessed upon police request.

Though Squilla was adamant that “no specific music acts created this issue,” a shooting death in the politician’s district after a show from rappers Lil Durk and Gunplay back in September seems likely to be the impetus for the bill. Also, it doesn’t help his case that Squilla was called out by Gawker in June after attending a “White Lives Matter” rally.

If this sounds like a dangerous, precedent-setting overreach of police powers to you, well, you’re not alone. The proposed bill predictably sparked outrage from all corners, including the Philadelphia ACLU, who said the bill “reflects a strange expansion of police duties and a dangerous muddling of the line between law enforcement and business licensing.” It of course immediately generated a Change.org petition.

Run the Jewels rapper El-P also weighed in:

Squilla issued a Facebook statement yesterday in response to the uproar. He now says that the bill was created to “close a loophole in the current legislation that has allowed venues to operate without a special assembly license” and that he will be considering any amendments to the bill.