Awful Truth, an Arizona-based punk band, have outraged the local Tucson Police Department by using a picture of a slain officer for the cover of their new album, Kill a Cop For God.
The Arizona Daily Star reports (via azcentral.com) the photo of slain officer Erik Hite was taken from their newspaper without permission. Tucson Police Captain Clayton Kidd added, “this is an absolute disgrace to Officer Hite, who gave his life defending out [sic] community. While they may have certain beliefs that they want to express, the venue in which they expressed it is disgusting and I’m outraged.”
David Stine, the frontman for Awful Truth, responded to the controversy: “It’s a pretty serious picture, and the topic itself is, too. It’s really dark humor, and as much as anybody else, we don’t particularly like cops, so we made a song about it,” Stine said, adding that he refuses to apologize to anyone about the album cover.