Comedian posted an Instagram video where he recounted his experience of being stopped and held at gunpoint by police
Roisin O'Connor @Roisin_OConnor
Comedian Jay Pharoah has shared an Instagram video in which he reveals he was recently stopped and handcuffed by police in Los Angeles while out exercising.
The former Saturday Night Live actor said the incident took place around a week before Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by two white men in Georgia. He also said that one of the officers knelt on his neck in a similar way to the office charged in the killing of George Floyd.
Security footage included in Pharoah’s video shows him walking down a street when an officer runs up pointing his gun at him.
That officer is joined by another on foot, and two more officers who exit from a police cruiser that arrives on the scene. Three of the officers have their guns drawn and pointed at Pharoah.
“They tell me to get on the ground, spread my arms out,” Pharoah said in the video. “They put me in cuffs. The officer takes his knee, puts it on my neck. It wasn’t as long as George Floyd, but I know how it feels.”
Pharoah said he told the officers to look him up on Google: “You will see that you made a big mistake.” The officers released him “a minute later”.
The 32-year-old said the officers told him he fit the description of “a black man in this area, with grey sweatpants and a grey shirt”.
He later went on CBS show The Talk to discuss his experience, where he described the moment the officer knelt on his neck as “totally gratuitous”
“I was just trying to exercise,” he said. “It could have easily turned into another situation if I wasn’t who I am. And the point is that being black in America is just that, being black in America.
“Other people can’t level with the same fears I have. Leaving the house, we should not have to fear going to the grocery store, going to get some gas, running down the street. It’s called human civility. That’s what it is. It’s called being a human. That’s why everyone is out protesting. Corona put us in the house, and George Floyd took us out of it.”
Pharoah ended his video by urging all black men to educate themselves on the law in case they were ever stopped by police.
“Be in the know,” he said. “I’m Jay Pharoah, and I’m a black man in America. And my life matters. Black lives always matter.”
An LAPD spokesman said: “The person in the Instagram post was detained as a possible suspect of a crime. It was determined to be the wrong suspect and he was let go. The incident is being investigated.”
The 32-year-old said the officers told him he fit the description of “a black man in this area, with grey sweatpants and a grey shirt”.
He later went on CBS show The Talk to discuss his experience, where he described the moment the officer knelt on his neck as “totally gratuitous”
“I was just trying to exercise,” he said. “It could have easily turned into another situation if I wasn’t who I am. And the point is that being black in America is just that, being black in America.
“Other people can’t level with the same fears I have. Leaving the house, we should not have to fear going to the grocery store, going to get some gas, running down the street. It’s called human civility. That’s what it is. It’s called being a human. That’s why everyone is out protesting. Corona put us in the house, and George Floyd took us out of it.”
Pharoah ended his video by urging all black men to educate themselves on the law in case they were ever stopped by police.
“Be in the know,” he said. “I’m Jay Pharoah, and I’m a black man in America. And my life matters. Black lives always matter.”
An LAPD spokesman said: “The person in the Instagram post was detained as a possible suspect of a crime. It was determined to be the wrong suspect and he was let go. The incident is being investigated.”
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