Ryan Napoli and Kumar Rao, the two New York city public defenders who appeared in the Uncle Murda featuring Maino video 'Hands Up,' have resigned. The pair also arranged for a portion of the video to be filmed in their Bronx Defenders headquarters.
'Hands Up' addresses police violence toward young black men. However, a lyric in the track -- "For Mike Brown and Sean Bell, a cop got to get killed" -- touched off controversy and drew attention to Napoli and Rao's involvement.
Rao and Napoli claim they weren't aware of the context of the video, although Napoli did say he had heard the lyrics. The laywers also thought they would be able to edit the video before it was released.
That didn't happen and now the two are out of a job.
Additionally, the director of the Bronx Defenders, Robin Steinberg, was suspended for 60 days without pay by New York's Department of Investigation because they found that she mislead the city about her employees' involvement in the video.
“The Bronx Defenders never approved the music video “Hands Up”, and never saw it before it went online. We deeply regret any involvement with this video," reads a statement on the tax-funded organization's website
Check out the video that's causing all of this trouble below.
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