The Miami Police Department has some 'splainin' to do [UPDATED x2]

UPDATED: The Miami Police Dept. has removed the images of Jay Z from their website.

UPDATED: Story appears on NBC Nightly News tonight

Rapper Jay Z - a guy who clawed his way out of "one of the worst housing projects in Brooklyn" - is worth close to $320 million. He's on the cover of this month's Forbes Magazine posing with gazillionaire Warren Buffett. Fortune Magazine calls him "America's Hippest CEO."

But someone at the Miami Police Department thinks Jay Z looks like a gang banger.

Miami P.D. already has an image problem that dates back decades. And the department is now struggling to explain a rash of recent police-involved shootings in the 'hood.

But Gus Garcia-Roberts at Miami New Times has turned up, what may be, the ultimate case of racial profiling on the part of the department.

While doing some research yesterday on the Miami P.D's website, Garcia-Roberts saw a banner that calls on the public to "report gang activity."

Garcia-Roberts thought that one of the people depicted in the banner looked suspiciously like rap mogul Jay Z. So he started poking around on Google and turned up an image that looks like the inspiration for the guy in the center.

And a New Times reader also found another image of Jay Z on the Internet that looks like exactly like the figure on the left-hand side of the banner.

Click here to see the images that appear to be the inspiration for the images portrayed on the banner.

The Fortune magazine story says that Jay - as friends call him - is "protective of his image." So, given the fact that $320 million buys a lot of legal advice, we're going to go out on a limb and predict that the Miami P.D. may be hearing from Jay Z's legal team very shortly.

Garcia-Roberts called the police but they want to investigate further before commenting.

When the cops call back, Garcia-Roberts has another question for them: "Couldn't they have found a photo of a real gang member on which to base their art? [After all] they are the police."

Look for this story to go viral very soon.