Country crooner Zach Bryan has been championed by a police organization following his arrest and subsequent online apology.
Retired Sgt. Betsy Branter Smith, a spokesperson for The National Police Association, told TMZ that officers are appreciative of the “Oklahoma Smokeshow” singer’s swift statement saying “sorry.”
“This is a very frustrated young man and he had some inappropriate things to say, but he complied with the officers,” she told the outlet. “He didn’t try to fight them or attack them. He mouthed off. And he apologized.”
Bryan took to Instagram this week to detail his Thursday encounter with law enforcement, offering up an apology for “mouthing off like an idiot.”
One of his employees had been pulled over while they were on the road to Boston, prompting Bryan to pull off the road to wait. But when things were taking too long, he got out of the car to investigate himself.
Despite the officer’s demands for the hitmaker to return to his car, Bryan was defiant.
“And like a dumbass, I was like, ‘Take me to f–king jail? What do you mean?’ So I get too lippy with him, he brings me over to his car, and I just didn’t help my situation at all,” he said.
“I felt like a child, it was ridiculous and immature. I just pray everyone knows I don’t think I’m above the law. I was just being disrespectful and I shouldn’t have been. It was my mistake.”
Footage from his arrest shows Bryan grumbling that the “f—king cops are out of hand,” in addition to throwing a few insults at the officers.
In the moment, he said his “emotions got the best” of him.
He was booked on Thursday in Oklahoma on an obstruction of investigation charge, according to records from the Craig County Jail.
Smith commended the chart-topping musician’s online honesty and apology and says she hopes he’ll use his platform to support law enforcement going forward.
She noted that it’s common for officers to interact with people who behave like Bryan, but has brushed off the singer’s comments from the heat of the moment.
The Post could not immediately reach Bryan’s reps for comment.
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