Britney Spears Won’t Apologize for Brandishing Gun in ‘Criminal’ Video

In between tour dates, Britney Spears has been preparing another surprise for her fans, shooting a video for her new single, “Criminal,” in London. The Hackney Council has summoned the star to issue an apology for brandishing a gun in the clip, but she’s not budging.

The Daily Mail reports that councilors have issued statements saying that, while they did approve the request to shoot the video in Hackney, they were not informed that the popstar and her boyfriend would play the part of armed robbers in it.

Since the area is among those most devastated in the recent youth riots, authorities believe Britney is setting a very bad example – and they consequently want her to apologize and make a donation to one of the charity organizations working with youths.

“Councilor Ian Rathbone called on the star to apologize and make ‘a sizeable donation’ to a Hackney charity for young people, to make up for ‘the rudeness and damage that she’s done to our community’,” the Mail writes.

By hiding from authorities the real concept of the video and then going ahead with the plan in such a controversial area, Britney is sending a very wrong message to her young fans.

“It’s images like this, with popstars glamorizing gangs, which means that some young people... get drawn in. Britney should know better,” local Labour MP Diane Abbott says for the same publication.

“While the agreement was for anonymous use of Stoke Newington Town Hall, we did not agree a replica gun could be used. We are disappointed the film crew made a last-minute change to the scene,” a council spokesman adds.

With all this, Britney’s people believe they did nothing wrong: the song was written long before the riots and the video is nothing but make-believe.

As such, the star has nothing to apologize for, they say in a statement cited by AceShowbiz.

“The video is a fantasy story featuring Britney's boyfriend, Jason Trawick, which literally plays out the lyrics of a song written three years before the riots ever happened,” the statement reads.