MC Hammer was arrested Thursday night and it seems like real reason for his arrest is under question – was it racial profiling or his own unruly behavior?
MC Hammer and the police officer in question have completely different stories that pin the other person as being in the wrong.
The famous 1980s/1990s rapper and dance icon took to Twitter to tell his version of events and while they may seem to be a bit far fetched at first, you would be surprised just how unbelievable more true stories of racial profiling are.
The “Too Legit to Quit” rapper claimed that when the police officer approached his vehicle outside the Hacienda Crossings shopping center the police officer started things off with a very offensive question.
“Chubby elvis looking dude was tapping on my car window, I rolled down the window and he said ‘Are you on parole or probation?’” MC Hammer tweeted.
That was bad enough, but according to the rap star it escalated quickly from there for no apparent reason.
“When I was handing him my ID he reached in my car and tried to pull me out the car but forgot he was on a steady donut diet,” he tweeted a few minutes later as he continued to narrate his version of what happened. “It was comical to me until he pulled out his guns, blew his whistle and yelled for help (MallCop) !!! But make no mistake he’s dangerous.”
If this was truly what happened then MC Hammer, whose real name is Stanley Kirk Burrell, was clearly racially profiled and the police officer should be stripped of his duties.
There is one problem with the racial profiling story however; regardless of if he was being racially profiled or not he was actually in the wrong.
As it turns out the Dublin police officer approached the vehicle because Hammer was the vehicle’s registered owner on top of the fact that the car’s registration had been expired.
The police spokesperson gave CNN the officer’s version of events via e-mail. ‘
“After asking Hammer who the registered owner was he became very argumentative and refused to answer the officer’s questions,” police spokesperson Herb Walters wrote.
As time went on, the alleged racial profiling victim took to twitter again to continue his rant about what happened.
“Only thing more dangerous than a scared man with a gun, is a scared man with an agenda, a gun, and a badge,” he tweeted.
Another tweet finally answered the first question that the officer supposedly asked the rap star.
“I will now answer his question, contrary to her personal beliefs, all people of color are not on parole or probation fat boy,” he continued.
At the end of his insult filled Twitter rant he then admitted that at the end of the day the experience was a “teachable moment” and we couldn’t agree more – it’s a teachable moment for other African Americans to know what NOT to do you after you feel like you have been racially profiled.
As mentioned before, we don’t have the facts on what happened yet and we won’t ever know what really happened unless a nearby security camera managed to catch the incident on tape. For now, MC Hammer needs to realize that he made his situation much worse by hopping on Twitter to insult the officer.
Racial profiling against black males is extremely common and it’s because the general stereotype is that African American males are law breaking, rude, violent, uncooperative, dangerous criminals. So the last thing anyone needs to do after they have been racially profiled is to give the police any evidence that maybe you actually are the type to get so angry that you would stop cooperating with police and force the officer to have to try to pull you out of the car – because they do actually have the right to do that if they have a good reason.
Tweeting about what happened is one thing, but the rapper threw insults at the officer the entire time which could easily be used against him in court to suggest he is just such an angry person that it is likely he actually was refusing to cooperate with police.
For example, when Forest Whitaker was publicly frisked because a New York deli employee thought he was shoplifting, the famous actor kept his composure and simply brought the incident to the light in hopes that the establishment would correct the issue.
The important thing is that he didn’t give anyone a reason to believe that perhaps he did fit the African American male stereotype. Hammer, on the other hand, should have kept his rude comments off Twitter.
