Some UK police in Brixton violently handcuffed and dragged Fuse ODG out of his car after claiming they could smell “cannabis” coming from it.
The Grammy-winning musician was seen in the viral video attempting to fend off the officers’ violent behavior before succumbing to them. When the incident happened, Fuse ODG was riding along with a business partner in the car.
The Ghanaian-British artist claims that the UK law enforcement officers engaged in racial profiling during the incident.
Fuse ODG could be heard yelling, “Are you mad, do you have a warrant?” during the tense exchange.
To stop Fuse ODG from hurting himself, the officers allegedly handcuffed him forcibly at that precise moment.
“The reason is to prevent harm,” one officer told Fuse ODG in the video and he asked “harm to you?” he replied “and to yourself as well … because you could grab the drugs and swallow them“.
After the officers searched the car and discovered drugs, they let the musician and his friends leave.
Fuse ODG revealed the information about the incident after posting a video of it on his social media pages.
He explained that the incident took place on February 28, 2023.
“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,” he wrote.
He added that “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. 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,” Fuse ODG added.
“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.
That said, we are not holding our breaths for justice from this system. The real battle is internal…the real battle is won when we don’t let them break our confidence and we maintain our identity and dignity”.
