Jay Pharoah has shared that he was recently stopped by police while jogging in Los Angeles, alongside video footage that captured an officer kneeling on his neck during the incident.
Deadline points out that the former Saturday Night Live star shared video of the incident today on Instagram. In the clip, he says, "I could have easily been an Ahmaud Arbery or a George Floyd."
Pharoah recalled how "about a week prior" to Arbery's murder, he was out for a jog on Ventura Boulevard when he was stopped by police, guns drawn, and ordered to drop to the ground and "put your hands up like an airplane."
"They tell me to get on the ground, spread my arms out," Pharoah recalls. "They put me in cuffs. The officer took his knee, put it on my neck."
As the comedian recounts the police's actions, viewers watch the exact scene unfold through security camera footage.
"I said, 'Why are you doing this? What's wrong?'" he recalled. "They said, 'you fit the description of a Black man in this area with grey sweatpants on and a grey shirt.' I told them...'Google right now, Jay Pharaoh, you will see you have made a big mistake.'"
When the officers involved were notified that the suspect had been found, Pharoah said he told them, "get these f'in cuffs off me."
Discussing the incident today on CBS's The Talk, Pharoah said, "I was just trying to exercise...It could have easily turned into another situation if I wasn't who I am. And the point here is 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 about being a human."
You can watch the incident unfold below.
Deadline points out that the former Saturday Night Live star shared video of the incident today on Instagram. In the clip, he says, "I could have easily been an Ahmaud Arbery or a George Floyd."
Pharoah recalled how "about a week prior" to Arbery's murder, he was out for a jog on Ventura Boulevard when he was stopped by police, guns drawn, and ordered to drop to the ground and "put your hands up like an airplane."
"They tell me to get on the ground, spread my arms out," Pharoah recalls. "They put me in cuffs. The officer took his knee, put it on my neck."
As the comedian recounts the police's actions, viewers watch the exact scene unfold through security camera footage.
"I said, 'Why are you doing this? What's wrong?'" he recalled. "They said, 'you fit the description of a Black man in this area with grey sweatpants on and a grey shirt.' I told them...'Google right now, Jay Pharaoh, you will see you have made a big mistake.'"
When the officers involved were notified that the suspect had been found, Pharoah said he told them, "get these f'in cuffs off me."
Discussing the incident today on CBS's The Talk, Pharoah said, "I was just trying to exercise...It could have easily turned into another situation if I wasn't who I am. And the point here is 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 about being a human."
You can watch the incident unfold below.
