Source: Rodin Eckenroth / Getty
Actor and activist Kendrick Sampson was on the frontlines this past summer when the world took to the streets to march against police brutality. Following the tragic and untimely deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd, Black America had, had enough, launching an unprecedented war against systemic racism that wages on today.
As we’ve come to further understand through the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria, police violence and racism against the Black community isn’t just an American issue. This week, a friend of Sampson’s posted a viral video, in which the Insecure actor is being hit by Colombian police.
“POLICE BRUTALITY, this is my friend Kendrick Sampson @kendrick38, an actor and dedicated activist of the @blklivesmatter movement in the United States,” Natalia Reyes began. “Today this happened to him here in Cartagena and everything hurts, not only because he is a friend but because that is the day to day of many, because we got used to this and that is NOT okay, it’s not normal, the police have the right to ask for your ID but they don’t have the right to punch you, dig in your underwear (as happened before someone started filming) and pull a gun on a person who is not committing any crime or offering any resistance, taking him to a station, not wanting to return his ID and even trying to admonish him? What if this person wasn’t filming? When is this gonna stop? It’s time to rethink the use of force.”
“What @nataliareyesg wrote below is correct,” Sampson added. “Cartagena is AMAZING but this is the 6th time I was stopped in 5 days. It happens to Black Colombians often. I’m told stopping is policy but what is NOT is they reached down my underwear aggressively, slap my arms 5 times hard, punch me in my jaw and pull his gun on me. He then cuffed me and dragged me through the streets. I did not resist any legal procedure. Thank u for posting @nataliareyesg & for helping me through this. And to the person who recorded this.”
See partial video of police harassing and attacking Sampson below.
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