U2, Ed Sheeran Cancel St. Louis Concerts Amid Rioting Over Jason Stockley Acquittal

U2 and Ed Sheeran canceled their scheduled St. Louis area concerts over the weekend as rioting plagued the city in response to the acquittal of a white police officer in the murder of a black motorist.

Violence and looting erupted downtown and in the Central West End neighborhood for a second straight night Saturday after St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley was found not guilty in the shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

That led to the decision to cancel U2’s Saturday night concert at the Dome at America’s Center.

“We have been informed by the St. Louis Police Department that they are not in a position to provide the standard protection for our audience as would be expected for an event of this size,” U2 and concert promoter Live Nation said in a joint statement. “We have also been informed that local crowd security personnel would not be at full capacity.

“In light of this information, we cannot in good conscience risk our fans’ safety by proceeding with tonight’s concert. As much as we regret having to cancel, we feel it is the only acceptable course of action in the current environment.”

Deeply saddened at what has happened in St. Louis and having to cancel our show tonight….I found myself reading Dr. King’s speech from the National Cathedral and asking myself is this 1968 or 2017? – Bono “Human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability….we are coming to ask America to be true to the huge promissory note that it signed years ago. And we are coming to engage in dramatic nonviolent action, to call attention to the gulf between promise and fulfillment; to make the invisible visible.”

A post shared by U2 Official (@u2) on Sep 16, 2017 at 12:07pm PDT