UPDATED WITH VIDEO.
*While attending the Mayweather–McGregor fight in Las Vegas, Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett said he was targeted and assaulted by Las Vegas police officers.
In a lengthy post on Twitter, the 6-foot-4, 274 pound NFL player wrote after hearing gunfire on the street, he and several other people around him took off running. Bennett said cops stopped him, forced him on the ground, put him in handcuffs and pointed guns at his head. He also claims that officers verbally assaulted him.
“The officers excessive force was unbearable. I felt helpless as I lay on the ground handcuff facing the real time threat of being killed,” Bennett wrote. “All I could think of was ‘I’m going to die for no other reason than I am black and my skin color is somehow a threat.’ My life flashed before my eyes and I thought of my girls. ‘What if I ever see them again?'”
Bennett wrote he kept asking the officers what he had done, but they ignored his concerns.
Once Bennett’s identity was confirmed, he was released, but “without any legitimate justification for the officers abusive conduct.”
Watch video of the incident below, courtesy of TMZ:
Bennett has hired Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris to explore his legal options, he wrote, adding that he plans to file a civil rights lawsuit for the violation of his constitutional rights.
Bennett is among the handful of NFL stars that embraced last seasons’ National Anthem protest to call attention to police brutality and racism led by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Bennett wrote his personal experience in Las Vegas confirms why he is participating in these protests and that there is a problem in America that cannot be denied.
“The fact is unequivocally, without question why before every game, I sit during the National Anthem– because the quality doesn’t live in this country and no matter how much money you make what job title you have, or how much you give, when you are seen as a (explicative), you will be treated that way.”
Read Bennett’s entire post below:
Equality. pic.twitter.com/NQ4pJt94AZ
— Michael Bennett (@mosesbread72) September 6, 2017
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