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PONTIAC, Mich. (WJBK) - A Michigan driver was ticketed for playing his music too loud at a Pontiac gas station - but he says the volume wasn't what led to the ticket: he said it was the song.
James Webb pulled into a Pontiac gas station with his radio on. He admits it was loud while he listened to the NWA song "F--- the Police" but is convinced that it was the song choice that got him the ticket.
Webb pulled into the gas station after an Oakland County Sheriff's deputy pulled over another driver, Dejuante Franklin.
"The cop was talking to me, handing me my ticket, and was like 'is he playing that for me?' I was like 'I don't know him, you ask him that question.' He was like 'I'm sick of this...I'm going over there now'," Franklin said.
Webb admits he turned the song louder on purpose and then went in the store.
"I went over there and played that song loud. I meant to do it to the officer but as a form of protest," Webb said. "It was already up but I turned it up louder. Didn't mean no violence, nothing, as a complete form of protest."
When he came out of the store, the officer was waiting.
"He just took my license, gave me the ticket," Webb said.
The police report shows the deputy made note that he was not offended by his choice of music or the song he chose to play while at the gas station but the music might be offensive to patrons and noted there were children who could also hear it.
Webb's attorney isn't buying the deputy's side of the story.
"If the officer is saying it wasn't the content of the music, it's quite a coincidence then. The name of the song being 'F--- the Police' and he's a police officer, I wonder if he would write the same ticket if he heard a song called 'I love the police," Nicholas Somberg said. "James had an absolute right, First Amendment right, to play whatever music he likes really wherever he likes."
Webb was cited for noise amplification with the deputy noting it was under the local ordinance for loud music - which prohibits unreasonably loud, disturbing, unusual or unnecessary noise.
"I know it was because of the content and not the decibels because he did not give me a warning, he did not say get out of there, he didn't pull out a decimeter, he just straight wrote me a ticket," Webb said.
The sheriff's office has not yet reviewed the dashcam video yet but say they are investigating what happened.