After two years, we’d nearly scrubbed all memory of the time Canadian cops put out a music video parody of Drake’s “Hotline Bling.”
But now, cops in Hamilton, Ontario, have surfaced with another cringe-worthy law enforcement spin on a popular track: “Whatever It Takes” by Imagine Dragons.
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The video is nearing 100,000 views on YouTube after just two days of being up.
The opening of the video features panning from a police station to a bike cop in slo-mo; said cop then begins lip-syncing on his bicycle to lyrics about vultures circling. Is this a possible reference to all the cops now getting into legal weed?
“Whip, whip/Run me like a racehorse” lyrics are coupled with cops on police horses, followed by epic scenes of a cop boat gliding over a body water and cop-topped motorcycles. Already the montage of flags, badges, and kevlar vests probably has you reaching for that stop button.
Then, a cop crew appears on screen to lip-sync the chorus: “Whatever it takes/’Cause I love the adrenaline/in my veins/I do whatever it takes/’Cause I love how it feels when I break the chains.”
We get what they’re trying to say: In cop context, they’ll do “whatever it takes.” But still, that “break the chains” part. Hmm.
Office cops even make several cameos, including one doing her best version of “the floss” dance by a desk. At one point, a cop repels down a wall like he is roleplaying the dorkiest superhero fantasy of all time.
Hamilton police reportedly said on their YouTube channel that they created the video when a community organization, Ottawa Street Business Improvement Area (BIA), “threw down the gauntlet when they asked us to participate in the lip sync challenge.”
London, Ontario, police also accepted a lip-sync challenge earlier this summer, leading to a video set to “Ice Ice Baby” being posted online. Is this an epidemic?
“We don’t think anyone is going to recruit us to perform anytime soon, but we had a ton of fun making the video,” Hamilton police said.
For all its flaws, the production value on the Hamilton cop video seemed pretty decent. Police are notorious for demanding more money for their budgets, after all. I guess now we know where some of that cash is going.
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