Michael Bennett: Cops drew guns on me for ‘being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time’
September 7, 2017 by admin
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Seattle Seahawks star defensive end Michael Bennett has accused police officers of pointing guns at him and using excessive force during an incident in Las Vegas last month.
Bennett posted a statement on his Twitter account Wednesday, saying that he felt “terrified” and “helpless,” and announced that he is considering filing a civil rights lawsuit.
According to Bennett, the incident occurred in the early-morning hours on Aug. 27 after the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight in Las Vegas, when police apprehended him after hearing what sounded like gunshots in a crowded area.
Bennett said officers pointed guns at him “for doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time” and ordered him to lie down on the ground.
Bennett wrote that one officer, with his gun drawn, warned him that he would “blow my f—— head off” if he moved. Another officer jammed his knee into Bennett’s back and handcuffed him, according to Bennett.
“The Officers’ excessive use of force was unbearable,” Bennett wrote. “I felt helpless as I lay there on the ground handcuffed facing the real-life threat of being killed. All I could think of was ‘I’m going to die for no other reason than I am black and my skin color is somehow a threat.’”
Bennett said he was placed in a police car before officers confirmed his identity, realized he was not a suspect and released him “without any legitimate justification for the Officers’ abusive conduct.”
“They apparently realized I was not a thug, common criminal or ordinary black man but Michael Bennett a famous professional football player,” he wrote.
Bennett described the incident as “traumatic” during a brief appearance Wednesday at the Seahawks’ facility.
“It’s a traumatic experience for me, my family and it sucks that the country that we live in now sometimes you get profiled for the color of your skin,” Bennett said. “It’s a tough situation for me. Do I think every police officer is bad? No, I don’t believe that. Do I believe there are some people out there that judge people by the color of their skin? I do believe that.”
Police officer Jacinto Rivera told The Associated Press that Las Vegas police are checking for video and written reports but can’t immediately verify Bennett’s account. The Las Vegas Police Department also tweeted that it would address the issue publicly later Wednesday.
A video posted Wednesday by TMZ Sports shows a police officer putting handcuffs on a man who appears to be Bennett. At one point in the video, the man purported to be Bennett is heard yelling to the officer: “I wasn’t doing nothing, man! I was here with my friends. They told us to get out; everybody ran. Can you answer my question, sir?”
Bennett said he has retained John Burris, an Oakland-based civil rights attorney, to investigate the incident and determine his legal options.
Burris released a statement Wednesday saying that Bennett “was unarmed, sober and not involved in any altercations or dispute at the time the police officers arrested and threatened to use deadly force against him.”
“We think there was an unlawful detention and the use of excessive force, with a gun put to his head,” Burris told The Associated Press. “He was just in the crowd. He doesn’t drink or do drugs. He wasn’t in a fight. He wasn’t resisting. He did nothing more or less than anyone in the crowd.”
Burris said Bennett waited to make public his account of the incident until after Burris contacted Las Vegas police last week by letter and email, seeking police records of Bennett’s detention.
Bennett, 31, said the incident is an example of the racial inequality that he is protesting by sitting for the national anthem. Bennett sat through the anthem for all four of the Seahawks’ preseason games this summer and has said he will continue doing so.
“I have always held a strong conviction that protesting or standing up for justice is just simply, the right thing to do,” Bennett wrote. “This fact is unequivocally, without question why before every game, I sit during the national anthem–because equality doesn’t live in this country and no matter how much money you make, what job title you have, or how much you give, when you are seen as a ‘N—–,’ you will be treated that way.”
Bennett’s brother, Green Bay Packers tight end Martellus Bennett, posted in an Instagram message to his brother that he is “glad your voice is one of the ones being heard.”
“I’m sad that you have to share this type of experience with the world but at the same time I’m happy that it happened to you and you lived to talk about it because we all know you’re going to talk about it. Lol,” Martellus Bennett wrote. “The conversation is growing and I’m glad your voice is one of the ones being heard. You are as real as they come, well at least how they used to come. I encourage you to Continue telling your story and the stories of those that came before.”
Michael Bennett has been a vocal advocate for former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, the first NFL player to publicly protest during the anthem last season.
Kaepernick, who remains unsigned this season, tweeted his support of Bennett on Wednesday.
“This violation that happened against my Brother Michael Bennett is disgusting and unjust,” Kaepernick tweeted. “I stand with Michael and I stand with the people.”
The Seahawks have not commented on the alleged incident. Seahawks center Justin Britt also tweeted his support of Bennett.
I stand with you Mike. #Equality https://t.co/Cu3SPWTW8s
— Justin Britt (@JustinBritt68) September 6, 2017
Britt has stood by Bennett’s side with a supportive hand on his shoulder while the defensive end sat on the bench during the anthem before the Seahawks’ last three preseason games. Britt began doing that after Bennett sat alone on the bench during the anthem before the preseason opener.
Patrisse Cullors, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter network, released a statement Wednesday offering the group’s support to Bennett. Black Lives Matter has joined with Color of Change to start a petition asking the Las Vegas Police Department to release the names of the officers who allegedly assaulted Bennett and video of the incident.
ESPN’s Brady Henderson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Myanmar, Florida, Vladimir Putin: Your Thursday Briefing
September 7, 2017 by admin
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Here’s a map of the storm’s projected path to Florida. At least four deaths have been reported. Follow our live briefing for updates.
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“This is the peak” of the season, a weather expert explains.
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• Our Southeast Asia correspondent is in Bangladesh, where the government is protesting violence in neighboring Myanmar that is driving a mass exodus. It has also raised official concerns over reports that Myanmar’s military is placing land mines along the border.
More than 146,000 people, nearly all Rohingya Muslims, have crossed since late last month. A U.N. spokeswoman said that refugee camps that were already packed are now “at the breaking point.”
Above, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India met with the Myanmar leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but there were no reports that he raised the issue of the Rohingya.
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• In India, journalists, activists and students poured into the streets of Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, New Delhi and other cities on Wednesday in outrage over the killing of an outspoken journalist.
Gauri Lankesh was shot dead this week in what opposition officials say appears to be yet another assassination of an intellectual who publicly criticized India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party.
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• Nearly 2,000 asylum seekers are due payouts in what appears to be Australia’s largest human rights settlement, a $56 million deal for harm suffered at the Manus Island detention center in Papua New Guinea.
In a few hours, Australia’s High Court will deliver its decision on the challenge to the government’s plans for a voluntary postal survey on same-sex marriage.
And our correspondent explains why a Melbourne city council rejected Australia Day, the national holiday marking the arrival of British settlers in 1788 in favor of an event acknowledging “the loss of Indigenous culture.”
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• Silicon Valley is a growing political force, and its preferred policies are starting to emerge. A new study found America’s tech elite to be extremely liberal — except when it comes to regulation.
• Stock in Intel rose more than 2 percent after the European Union ordered that a $1.3 billion antitrust fine be revisited, a ruling that could embolden U.S. tech giants to challenge other tough European rulings.
• Huawei, the Chinese smartphone maker, moved ahead of Apple for the first time in global phone sales, just behind Samsung. The iPhone 8 launches next week.
• Facebook, despite being blocked in China, may be hunting for office space in Shanghai.
• Boeing raised its 20-year forecast for aircraft demand in China: 7,240 new planes valued at $1.1 trillion.
• U.S. stocks were up. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.
In the News
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• Pope Francis has begun a six-day visit to Colombia aimed at nudging a country racked by 52 years of war toward an enduring peace with former guerrillas. [The New York Times]
• In the Philippines, a 14-year-old whose body was found with dozens of stab wounds is the third teenager to die in a month in President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war. [Agence France-Presse]
• Facebook said hundreds of apparently fake Russian accounts had bought political ads on its network during the U.S. presidential campaign. The company said it was cooperating with investigations into Russian influence on the election. [The New York Times]
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• China’s crackdown on rights activists has been the “most severe since the Tiananmen Square democracy movement,” said Human Rights Watch. [The New York Times]
• “We laugh, we sing karaoke.” Dennis Rodman, the former N.B.A. star, spoke of his friendship with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and said he would like to “straighten things out for everyone to get along together.” [Reuters]
• A funeral home operator in Japan will offer a drive-through service that allows the bereaved to honor lost loved ones without getting out of the car. [Japan Today]
Smarter Living
Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.
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• Making your bed can improve your whole day.
• Can you (or should you) test the health of your gut microbiota?
• Recipe of the Day: If you haven’t tried to make homemade ice cream, our guide is an excellent place to start.
Noteworthy
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• Stephen King’s “It”: A movie version of the 1980s horror tale, which pits a group of young people against an evil clown called Pennywise, opens in many theaters around the world today.
• Three chiffon dresses, two robes lined with white tiger fur, one sword. Those are some of the more than 80 opulent gifts Saudi Arabia gave President Trump when he visited in May.
• And can you trust a machine to tell you what’s exciting? The U.S. Open has turned to artificial intelligence to compile its most thrilling moments.
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It’s an important day in the origin of Uncle Sam, that red-white-and-blue personification of the United States.
Today in 1813, a newspaper in Troy, N.Y., made an early reference to the name and to the “U.S.” stamp on government supplies that supposedly gave rise to it.
Some of those supplies included beef from Samuel Wilson, a butcher in Troy who has been widely credited as the source of the name. American soldiers in the War of 1812 referred to the food as being from “Uncle Sam.”
(The city of Troy still proudly refers to itself as the “Home of Uncle Sam,” although some historians have traced the name’s origins back even earlier.)
In the 1860s, the political cartoonist Thomas Nast gave form to the name, drawing a tall, bearded man in a top hat.
The character’s appearance became cemented in the American mind during World War I, when a version by the artist James Montgomery Flagg pointed from a military recruitment poster with the words “I want you for U.S. Army.”
It was an indelible image with a slogan that was unforgettable (at least by headline writers at The Times.)
Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.
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