Shaq loses another police badge for his Bryant rap
Badges to be revoked after profane rap
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 | 9:34 PM ET
The Associated Press
Shaquille O'Neal is 'sworn in' as a special deputy captain with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office by Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoenix in 2006. (Will Powers/Associated Press)Shaquille O'Neal's raunchy rap in which he mocked former teammate Kobe Bryant is costing him another of his lawman badges.
Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown said Wednesday that he has asked the Phoenix Suns centre to return a badge he was given for his work with the southwest Virginia county's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
Brown says O'Neal's likeness also will no longer be used to promote Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, a unit of the department that O'Neal worked with in investigating internet predators. O'Neal served as a reserve deputy for the sheriff's department from 2004 through the end of 2007.
The decision comes one day after Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio asked O'Neal to return a special deputy's badge because of the language used in the rap.
Arpaio made Shaq a special deputy in 2006 and promoted him to colonel of his largely ceremonial posse later that year.
"I want his two badges back," Arpaio told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "Because if any one of my deputies did something like this, they're fired. I don't condone this type of racial conduct."
Shaq was seen in a video posted on the celebrity news and gossip website TMZ.com rapping that "Kobe couldn't do without me." O'Neal skewers the Lakers star, with whom he won three straight NBA titles from 2000-02 while with Los Angeles, for not being able to win a championship without him.
"I was freestyling. That's all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever," O'Neal told ESPN.com Monday. A call to the Suns on Tuesday seeking comment from O'Neal was referred to his public relations firm, which didn't immediately respond.
O'Neal previously served as a reserve officer with the Miami Beach Police Department while playing for the Miami Heat. He also volunteered with the Tempe Police Department after being traded to the Suns in February.
