In a video posted on Twitter late last night, actor John Cusack can be seen getting harassed and even attacked by police officers simply for watching and filming the ongoing civil unrest in Chicago. Cusack is one of several celebrities who’ve participated in the nationwide protests that began earlier this week in response to the death of George Floyd, and the institutionalized racism which caused it.
According to various news sources, the Illinois-born actor was cycling around the city of Chicago in an effort to document the protests and share them with his followers on social media. In the video, Cusack can be seen recording a burning car when an unidentified voice repeatedly tells him to vacate the area. As he leaves, the sound of metal hitting metal can be heard off-screen, which is apparently the sound of cops hitting his bike with their batons, an event which the actor confirms happened in the caption that accompanied the video.
Cops didn’t like me filming the burning car so they came at me with batons. Hitting my bike.
Ahhm here’s the audio pic.twitter.com/tfaOoVCw5v”— John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020
Meanwhile, in another tweet, Cusack also said that he saw authorities use tear gas and pepper spray to break up protesters, sights which led him to conclude the protests weren’t likely to end within a matter of days.
As mentioned before, John Cusack isn’t the only celebrity to partake in the protests, which have spread to Los Angeles, New York City, Nashville, Atlanta, and numerous other cities throughout the country. Ariana Grande, for instance, was seen joining protesters in LA while, elsewhere in the same city, The Flash star Kendrick Sampson was shot an alleged 7 times by rubber bullets, all of which fired by policemen.
Halsey, Machine Gun Kelly, and Nick Cannon have also gone out into the streets. Other prominent Americans, meanwhile, including Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé, and Ice Cube, have been promoting the movement through social media.
