Former Saturday Night Live star Jay Pharoah is getting really real about a horrifying thing that happened to him weeks ago while jogging out in Los Angeles.
The comedian and former late night TV star was running in the San Fernando Valley when he was stopped by LAPD officers, who laid him on the ground with one officer kneeling on his neck. Pharoah provided footage of the incident on Instagram, and spoke openly about it in an upcoming clip from The Talk.
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As you can see (below), Pharoah was detained by cops for an unclear reason while he’d been jogging, and as he notes, he “could have easily been an Ahmaud Arbery or a George Floyd.” As he shows in the clip itself, the moment was very scary for him, as he’d been innocently going down the street without any issue up to that point:
The actor and comedian will speak further about the incident during Monday morning’s daytime episode of The Talk. Apparently, he was just trying to jog down Ventura Boulevard when cops came upon him, claiming he was the same description as a wanted criminal.
He recalls (below):
“I see a gun from my peripheral and I look and the officer is like, ‘Freeze – get on the ground,’ and I’m like ‘Oh snap’… Three more officers drove up… it’s hot, corona is definitely something to be worried about, the police officers didn’t have on gloves, they didn’t have on masks…When they put me in cuffs, after they were all on me, an officer put his knee on my neck.”
Wow.
He goes on to report that very quickly the officers were told the actual suspect had been apprehended, and he was quickly apologized to; in response, he told them he just wanted the handcuffs to come off his hands. No kidding.
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He continued on from there, though, stating something important that we all should take the time to hear:
“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. Be in the know. I’m Jay Pharaoh and I’m a black man in America and my life matters. Black lives always matter. They always matter.”
No kidding. That’s the world we live in. Always has been.
Time to change it for the better… for EVERYBODY.
[Image via Apega/WENN]
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