N.Y. Police Union Urges Boycott of Springsteen Shows

There will be plenty of police on hand for the opening tonight of Bruce Springsteen’s 10-concert stand at Madison Square Garden.

But the officers not on duty are being urged by their union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Assn., to boycott the concerts.

A Springsteen song inspired by last year’s police slaying of an unarmed West African immigrant in the Bronx has prompted the boycott. In February, officers involved in the shooting were acquitted of murdering Amadou Diallo, 22.

First performed in Atlanta a week ago, the song opens with the words “41 shots, 41 shots”--the number of bullets fired at Diallo. It includes the line, “You can get killed just for living in your American skin.”

“I happen to like Springsteen,” Officer Orlando Vega told the Daily News. “But we’re trying to work in this community, and him opening up old wounds just makes our jobs more difficult.”