The Amity Affliction’s vocalist and bassist Ahren Stringer “miraculously gained” extra social media followers overnight, but it wasn’t necessarily due to the upcoming release of the band’s new album Let The Ocean Take Methe follow-up to their ARIA #1 Chasing Ghosts

Instead, as Stringer points out on Twitter, his social media swell came after the musician received “death threats and name calling” for stirring online outrage over an Instagram post intepreted as inciting violence and alleged death threats of his own towards police officers.

The offending post (seen below) features an image of an American police funeral procession with the caption “Freedom grows when cops get planted. Plant a freedom seed today.”

The image immediately drew mixed yet equally passionate reactions, with some of Stringer’s followers supporting his right to express his views while others were disappointed in his post, as Music Feeds reports.

“You’re a role model dude. No matter what you think, this post has gone too far. You preach about anti suicide, yet it’s right to promote death on here?” quizzed one commenter, while another – revealing he was a soon-to-be policeman – wrote: “it just sucks that you had to post this… your music is always so positive and this is so damn negative.” 

Soon after the controversy, Stringer issued a second Instagram post (below) aiming to explain the context behind his original image; a composite image that pairs a news story about murder charges laid against a former Police detective with artwork by noted anti-authoritarian rappers N.W.A and Ice-T.

“Listen, anyone who is personally friends with or related to an officer of the law, if I offended you by my previous post I apologise,” the Amity member writes in the caption.

“I might seem ignorant to the ignorant but believe me I’m quite the opposite. I’ve felt personally victimised by the police, along with every single one of my closest friends since I can remember (about 15) I’m now 28 yrs old and the hate runs deep. Did I mention a police officer killed a kid yesterday in Sydney?

I’ve miraculously gained followers tonight through the death threats and name calling, @stringDTD 1 -cops 0

— Ahren Stringer (@stringDTD) May 28, 2014

Further referencing Body Count, N.W.A, along with Dead Kennedys and Black Flag, Stringer writes “Jesus fucking Christ! (Sorry to take the Lord’s name in vain) this is punk rock/heavy metal! … This shit is about being oppressed and abused by other human beings that should be equal to you and I but are abusing their power and authority. I’m not saying I have the all the answers but I know damn sure something is wrong and it ain’t me.”

Adding fuel to the controversial fire is that Stringer and his bandmates coincidentally dressed up as US police officers in a Kane Hibberd photoshoot for The Music‘s cover story on The Amity Affliction issued this week, promoting the release of the Queensland hardcore outfit’s fourth and latest LP, Let The Ocean Take Me, out 6th June (via Warner Music Australia/Roadrunner).

 (Photo: Kane Hibberd. Source: The Music.com.au)

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