Cartoon versions of Michael Norwood and Moe Badger, founders of Children Overcoming Police Stereotypes through Sports (COPSS) Image: Instagram/@copssny
Two police officers from New York, United States may have found their ideal side job. Showing off their musical chops, the singing duo broke police stereotypes by belting out in a restaurant — making them internet sensations overnight.
Michael Norwood and Moe Badger, two police officers in Buffalo, New York, were singing Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” when a certain Chelsea Kelley recorded their performance. Kelley then uploaded it on Facebook last February. Two months later, the duo has become a singing sensation, appearing in “The Ellen Degeneres Show” on April 1.
Branding themselves as the “Buffalo Bad Boys,” Norwood and Badger use their singing abilities to unite the city while doing their jobs as police officers, as per CBS on April 16.
“People are always saying, ‘When are you guys ever gonna start working?'” Norwood said as per the report. “And it’s like, we are working, this is how we work.”
The duo, however, had different lives before becoming cops; Norwood was a basketball player, while Badger was a gospel singer. Now, after being partners for two years, the officers aim to break the stereotypes surrounding the police.
Aside from using music to form a bond with the community, the “Buffalo Bad Boys” had created a program called Children Overcoming Police Stereotypes through Sports (COPSS), wherein the officers engage with children by playing basketball games together.
“[There has] definitely been a divide between our community and the police officers,” lamented Badger. Through COPPS, Norwood and Badger aim to remove the divide by bonding with children in different schools.
“Through building these relationships in these schools — now, these same kids are not only embracing police officers, but now [they are] coming to us saying, ‘Hey, I wanna be like you,'” the former gospel singer was quoted as saying.
During their guest appearance in “The Ellen Degeneres Show”, the host donated $10,000 (over P516,000) to the foundation, as the pair made the audience swoon with their rendition of “My Girl” by The Temptations. Casey Eridio/JB
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