Cops Raid Ving Rhames’ Home, Hold Him at Gunpoint, Accusing Him of Breaking Into His Own House
During an Interview this Friday on the Sirius XM radio program, The Clay Cane Show, actor Ving Rhames revealed that he recently had guns drawn on him by police, because he was suspected of breaking into his own house. A neighbor allegedly called the police to report that a “large black man” had broken into the house, not knowing that the man described actually lived there.
The topic came up during the interview when Cane asked, “I am sure you hear about all the reports of black men being attacked by police. You are a big star, but how does racism show itself in your life?” Rhames responded by opening up about his own encouner with police earlier this year.
“This happened this year. I am in my home, it was around 2:15 p.m. in the afternoon. I have a screen door and then I have a wooden door…. I’m in my house, I’m in a pair of basketball shorts only. I have two English bulldog puppies. I hear a noise in my backyard, but I’m thinking the puppies are just running around, and then I get a knock on the front door,” Rhames said.
Rhames said he opened his door to an army of police officers who all had their sights aimed at his head.
“I open the door and there is a red dot pointed at my face from a 9-mm. They say put up your hands, literally. I just walked and opened up the door….Then they said ‘open the front screen door.’ They say do it with one hand so then I have to do it with one hand. My hands are up and they have me outside,” Rhames said.
Luckily, the police chief was familiar with many of the films that Rhames has starred in and recognized his face before anyone got hurt. “He said to me, ‘A woman called 911 [and] said a large black man was breaking into the house. And so we came,’” Rhames said.
After the ordeal, the police returned with Rhames to the neighbor’s house, and they denied ever calling the police. Rhames rightfully pointed out that even though his story had a relatively happy ending, things could have turned out much differently.
“My problem is, as I said this to them, what if it was my son and he had a video game remote or something and you thought it was a gun?” Rhames said.
“You can check this with the Santa Monica Police Department. They apologized and what have you. This is the God’s honest truth,” he added.
Saul Rodriguez, the Santa Monica Police Department lieutenant, told People that guns were drawn on Rhames because “burglaries can sometimes be violent.”
“We got a call from several neighbors indicating that they thought what they were looking at was a burglary in the home and we responded within minutes. As soon as we discovered it was Mr. Rhames, we de-escalated immediately and informed him what happened,” Rodriguez said.
“You don’t know what you’re going to encounter. Officers can be very cautious,” Rodriguez added.
Sometimes celebrity does not save an innocent person from the police though. In January, Milwaukee Bucks guard Sterling Brown was running into a Walgreens store when he was approached by a lone police officer. The officer then called for backup and within minutes, nearly a dozen cops had this otherwise innocent man, surrounded, assaulted, tasered, and arrested because he had parked incorrectly. Just a few years ago, Dave Chappelle revealed that he was choked by a police officer while he was on the set of a movie.
Listen to the full interview with Ving Rhames below:
https://soundcloud.com/siriusxm-news-issues/clay-cane-ving-rhames-on-his-experience-with-racism
Its US vs them.
That is the mentality of the police officer.
The people think that the police work for them, and do not understand the police officer's actions.
But, a police officer is an officer of the court, of the law, of the state. They are there to guard the state from anyone trying to harm it.
So, we have a pretty bubble, two sides believing two completely different things. When the truth comes out, and the bubble pops, the police officers, like all police in a police state, will die.
And coming with your guns drawn doesn't help.
If just 2% of the people get upset at the police... they know where you live, and they outnumber you.
I urge any police officer to start working on real public relations.
So were they there to guard the state or to protect Ving Rhames house from a burglar?
The people who "just follow orders" are the actual key to everything. Governments can never truly be a threat without the indoctrinated meatheads carrying out their orders. Governments unto themselves are not a threat if the masses pay them no attention, but alas, we are forced under the threat of violence to obey their laws via the "order followers"
Trigger happy police are a problem. So are trigger happy criminals. It looks like a vicious cycle that began a long time ago. Add racial disparities in life outcomes and crime statistics and outright racism to the mix and it won't look pretty.
If the police in this case were "trigger happy" then someone would have been shot or shot at.
That part of the comment wasn't meant to be directly applicable to this case. But it ties into this case indirectly. The police (and criminals) in America are relatively quick to point guns at people because both criminals and the police quite often do use their guns. Guns were drawn in this case, too, but they weren't fired. As Mr. Ving said to the cops, it could've been his son at the door with a video game controller in his hand who might actually have got shot.
From a Nordic point of view, guns drawn by the police is a rare occurrence. I remember going to my workplace (an office building) late in the evening once and triggering the alarm by not inserting some codes right or something. After a while, a police officer arrived. He was alone. The use of guns never entered anybody's mind. The policeman asked me some questions and I showed him my ID and my electronic key card. Then he left.
You could expect a similar response if you triggered an alarm here, but that's not what happened in this case.
How would the police respond to several calls of someone breaking into a home?
They'd probably send one patrol. I don't think they'd pull out a gun too easily.
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
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so is the idea that the police would not have responded the same way in that ritzy neighborhood to calls that a large white man was breaking into the house?
That's exactly the idea and how those situations play out every day. For reference:
https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
According to that 75% of people shot by police were not black. So you don't think the police would have responded if the neighbors were saying a large white man was breaking in based on what?
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