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UK police in Brixton forcibly handcuffed and dragged Ghanaian-British singer Fuse ODG out of his car after claiming they smelled marijuana coming from it.
In the story originally shared by Tru News Report, the Grammy-winning singer alleges that racial profiling by British officials led to the incident. Fuse ODG’s voice could be heard above the commotion, yelling something to the effect of “Are you mad? Do you have a warrant?”
In a video fast gaining currency on the internet, Fuse ODG can be seen fending off the harsh police approach before being taken into custody.
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The business partner of the musician was in the car and witnessed everything that took place. The Afrobeats musician said in an Instagram post that the incident took place on February 28 of that year (2023).
The cops said they had to physically restrain Fuse ODG to keep him from hurting himself, which is why they chose an extremely harsh approach.
In the footage, one officer tells Fuse ODG, “The reason is to prevent harm… harm to you and harm to yourself as well because you could grab the drugs and swallow them.”
Fuse ODG posted a video of the incident on his social media accounts, detailing what had happened.
“I almost didn’t share this incident as, firstly, I’m exhausted of seeing videos like this myself, as I know a lot of you are. Secondly, for my own sense of pride, honestly speaking, it’s just embarrassing. I’m too much of a king to be handled like this! So with the above in mind, what you are watching is actually a censored version of events.
“Having taken the time to process the incident and this ongoing problem, there are certain things that I feel must be said. This incident took place a few months back, on 28th Feb 2023.
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I was dragged out of my car and handcuffed in the middle of the street in Brixton with no warning or explanation. After the incident, I spent 6 hours in A & E due to how tightly they clamped the cuffs on me (excruciating pain!), as well as suffering neck and back pain for the following weeks.
“It’s wild that this is the normal reality for too many of us growing up in this country, but even wilder is that this is still the reality in a post George Floyd world.
In the past months, we have seen so many videos of police officers beating up and even kneeling on our black children in the UK. I know because a lot of the time they come to me for help.
The sad reality is that as a black man living in this system, it doesn’t matter how much money you make or the positive impact that you have on the world, they still only see you as one thing. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me or @mrhackett1.
At one point, it was almost a weekly occurrence. The difference is that at this stage in life, we are now in the position to have the resources at our disposal to deal with these issues differently.
We have filed a formal complaint with the @metpolice_uk, and we are very grateful to @tundeokewale of @UrbanLawyers, who has come to stand in the gap for us.” Fuse ODG added.