A viral video that has sparked public outrage captures the moment UK-based Ghanaian musician, Fuse ODG had an encounter with the UK Police.
The video sees singer ODG being arrested and harassed by UK police officers. This follows after the police accused him of possessing hard drugs.
Detailing how he was handcuffed and harassed, the Grammy award winner wrote;
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. 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 occurance. 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.