Petition to stop R Kelly's Amsterdam show
A petition was launched on Monday to prevent R. Kelly from performing in Amsterdam later this year. Despite the furor currently surrounding the American singer over multiple allegations of sexual abuse, R. Kelly announced last week that he will be performing at The Box in Amsterdam on April 20th, RTL Nieuws reports.
R. Kelly, or Robert Sylvester Kelly, is under fire again after the release of documentary miniseries Surviving R. Kelly. The documentary features several women who accuse the singer of sexual abuse, abuse of power, and sex with minors.
According to the petition, titled "R. Kelly must not perform in the Netherlands", the singer sexually abused and raped many young ladies for his own pleasure. "Many people do not want this man to perform." Roughly 1,350 people signed the petition by 4 p.m. on Monday.
"The fact that they would announce an R. Kelly concert in The Netherlands the same week that this documentary was released is an affront, plain and simple," said Marvin Hokstam, of Afro Magazine. He is an outspoken critic of R. Kelly, and the culture of silence around institutionalized sexual abuse.
"It shows that we, as people, don't give a shit. We remain silent or act like it's business as usual when it comes to assault, sexual and otherwise," Hokstam added in an interview with NL Times. "This is how the community has responded to R. Kelly in the past. This problem lies with R. Kelly, and beyond him as well."
Following the release of the three episode-long program, several investigations into the singer were opened, or re-opened. Police in the singer's hometown of Chicago interviewed Kelly and several women at his apartment in the Trump Tower there after an anonymous tipster told the Cook County State's Attorney's office that Kelly was holding two women against their will. No arrests were made after the Friday investigation, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
After the documentary was released, Cook County State Attorney Kimberly Foxx asked victims of sexual abuse to call her office in Chicago, Illinois. Meanwhile, the American state of Georgia also launched a criminal investigation against him.