By P1 Staff
YORK CITY, Pa. — Officials pulled a police department’s lip-sync challenge video after the mayor claimed a donut shop’s involvement in the production resulted in “divisive messaging,” according to York Daily Record.
Maple Donuts’ owner, Charles Burnside, supports President Trump and often incorporates pro-Trump messages into the business’ advertising.
The video was to be shown as part of a benefit for the department’s motorcycle unit during a local professional baseball game Saturday. It features York City police officers lip-syncing Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” and chasing a Maple Donuts truck.
Mayor Michael Helfrich opposed the video after backlash from some in the York community, according to a statement from city spokesman Philip Given in the Daily Record.
In the same statement, Given attributed the cooperation with Maple Donuts to an “internal miscommunication between city officials.”
“York City Police Department should not be associated with a company that chooses to use divisive messaging in their advertising,” he said. “The mayor believed that overall feedback supported his concerns of the potential harm it could do to police and community relations.”
Sue Adams, who collaborated on the video on behalf of the department, voiced disappointment over the pulled video to the Daily Record.
“It’s sad that [Helfrich and the city] are putting a political spin on something that is supposed to be fun – cops chasing a donut truck,” she said.
Community opinion is divided.
“Some … were absolutely opposed to releasing it under any circumstances,” Given told the Daily Record. “Some were okay with releasing it and some believed that to release it would require a disclaimer to ensure residents that the statements made by an organization in the video do not reflect the views of the York City Police Department.”
Mayor Helfrich plans to show the video at the local NAACP’s Tuesday meeting, according to the Daily Record.
