Two Black Comedians Sue Police Over Search at Atlanta Airport
The scene was like something from a black comedy. Five officers, wearing ski masks, wearing bulletproof vests and carrying weapons, walked into a waiting room and began to question a pair of white men who stood in front of a pay phone.
The five cops walked right up to the men and had them sit, handcuffed, at the edge of the pay phone. They asked the men their passwords and they refused to give them.
The four men, who are white but identify themselves as black because of their names, answered the questions freely and calmly, as if they were simply talking to one of their girlfriends on the phone.
“All of this,” said John, referring to a confrontation between the five cops and the four men inside a terminal at Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport last Tuesday night, “is a lot of nonsense.”
John and Stephen, the other two men arrested by the police, are brothers who make a living playing black comedy on the comedy circuit. They do this by taking well-deserved shots at police agencies and police.
When a search of their homes last year revealed that John and Stephen, respectively, are the two richest black men in Atlanta, they were suspended from their jobs as comedians.
“When I heard that the police were going to come and search our places, I began to laugh,” said John as he sat on an armchair and read a book he brought with him. “I could tell the police aren’t going to look in here, and if they do start looking, then we’ll just show them what’s in the file.”
He added: “I hate America, why is it that America is the country where I have to stand up and show them how I feel [?] This is America and we have free speech in America. You can say whatever you want in this country, nobody’s going to stop you.”
Police at the scene say they are looking for the $60,000 gold chain John had under his belt. They say it is a gift from his late