Comedian Jay Pharoah, known for his detail-oriented SNL impersonations as Jay-Z and President Barack Obama, took to social media showing police and surveillance footage of him forcibly detained by LAPD, with the comedian claiming they approached him with drawn weaponry and arms, and being knelt down in the manner which brought similarities with George Floyd’s death.
In a rather emotional post on his Instagram account, Pharoah thus captioned: “They put me in cuffs, the officer took his knee, put it on my neck.
It wasn’t as long as George Floyd, but I know how that feels,” Pharoah said, while surveillance video, dated April 26, shows his encounter with the police. The supposed hold happened because he coincidentally fit the description with the suspect that the police was chasing , a “black man in this area with gray sweatpants on and a gray shirt.
” Due to his quick response by saying “you will see that you made a big mistake.” Pharoah said he was released “a minute later” and the officers apologized, the police officers finding out about his identity through Googling.
Pharoah said this was the first time he had been put into a situation where he was forced under a wrongful arrest based on over-reactive police force, possibly based on race.
He conveyed the message of solidarity and forewarning to the other black men, saying in his same post that “we have the knowledge and we have the power to overthrow.” Pharoah added that he could have “easily been an Ahmaud Arbery or George Floyd,” but that he’s “still here to tell my story.
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At the end of his video, Pharoah reenacted the moment where the officer knelt on his neck. “We as a country can’t breathe anymore.
We are tired, we are sick and we are tired of it. I can’t breathe,” he said.
LAPD says they are aware of the video and it is under investigation. Since the death of George Floyd and the global protests that followed, at least 20 US cities and municipalities are moving to ban or have banned the use of choke holds.
Those cities include Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, Miami, Chicago and New York City.
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Replaced!