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Comedian Eric Andre has said he was racially profiled by police officers before boarding a flight at Atlanta airport.
In a series of tweets on Thursday he said he was approached by two plain-clothed officers in Delta terminal T3.
The television host tweeted: “They stopped me on the way down the bridge to the plane for a ‘random’ search and asked if they could search me for drugs. I told them no. Be careful.”
However, the Atlanta Police Department told Variety that APD officers were not involved in this search and that other law enforcement agencies also have jurisdiction in the Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
Andre wrote in another Tweet: “So glad to hear Atlanta PD doesn’t operate like this, but who was the agency that interrogated me and why does ATL allow an agency with those kinds of random search rules to operate in one of the busiest airports in the world?”
Soon after that, Atlanta Airport released an official statement clarifying “the incident involved officers from Clayton County Drug Taskforce” which operates “separately from the Atlanta Police Airport Drug Interdiction Unit.”
“Officials from ATL and APD are scheduled to meet with Clayton County law enforcement officers next week to review procedures,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Clayton County PD also responded to Andre’s claims of racial profiling. They said that the Bad Trip actor voluntarily provided the investigators with information of his travel plans, and consented to a search of his bag but the investigators chose not to do so.
Andre replied back to their claims, saying: “This is sad and full of misinformation Keisha Bottoms [Mayor of Atlanta] please help me. Clayton County PD violated my rights.”
“I did NOT volunteer to a search and I did not volunteer to talk. You guys flashed your badge and detained me with no probable cause except for racism. This is JIM CROW RACISM Clayton County PD I DID NOT VOLUNTEER TO A SEARCH. YOU ARE HARASSING ME. THIS IS RACISM!” he wrote.
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