WU TANG CLAN - RZA URGES PEERS TO RESPECT THE POLICE

RZA URGES PEERS TO RESPECT THE POLICE

WU-TANG CLAN star RZA has started urging his rap peers to show more respect for the police after playing a cop in his new movie AMERICAN GANGSTER. The rapper - real name Robert Diggs - spent time with 'New York's finest' researching his role opposite Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington in the film, and now he has a new-found respect for cops. And he wants his peers to do the same. He says, "When they did this movie they hired New York City policemen to help us with the lingo and I would hang around with them. We would drink together. "Even after the film was over I became friends with a few of them. "I was at an event and I had a few rappers with me who got on stage, rapping, 'F**k the police, f**k the police,' and I was like, 'Hold on yo!' I had to stop 'em and these are my people saying that. "I said, 'I want to apologise to the policemen,' and I wanted the crowd to root for the police. I had them cheering for the police. Policeman are our cousins, our brothers and we got to respect them. "Some of them are still stuck in their old mentality of looking at black people like criminals, but, on a whole level, I think there's a lot of policemen that are really good for the community just trying to do their part."