Salehe Bembury was furious when a Beverly Hills police officer stopped him and searched him for hidden weapons on Thursday.
The officers caught him while he was jaywalking after shopping at the Versace store.
Bembury recorded a video after the incident and said, he was in Beverly Hills and went to visit a friend in Amiri’s store. He was thinking that he had never been to Beverly Hills, so he is gonna stop by the Versace store and buy a few things. Then he was walking back to his car.
He continued, all of a sudden police officer’s car pulled up on him.
At the moment, jaywalking is illegal in Beverly Hills, so the police weren’t illogical to stop him. Nevertheless, the way they behaved towards him during the interaction, Salehe Bembury, and others believe that he was a victim of racial profiling.
The police officer’s bodycam recorded the incident, and later it got published to the civils.
Bembury is the Vice President of Sneakers and Men’s Footwear at Versace, due to this fact, the story is even more maddening.
At the start of the conversation, Bembury asked what did he do. Then after a realization, he added that he believes he was just jaywalking, which was unintentional because while he was crossing the road, he was looking at the GPS, therefore he didn’t see the red-hand sign.
The policeman asked if he could inspect Bembury for any weapons and his identification on which Salehe agreed and handed over his wallet.
In consideration of the LegalZoom’s criteria, there was no good reason for Bembury to be frisked. Due to this, he assumed they searched him because he is a Black man walking through a rich neighborhood.
Bembury asked the officer’s approval to record them and they agreed. Then he said to the camera, he is Beverly Hills now, and he was being frisked for shopping at the store he works for, actually, the reason… being Black.
Afterward, the policeman said that Salehe Bembury is telling things in a completely different way.
Despite that, that doesn’t clarify why Bembury was frisked. Keeping someone safe from being the victim of a traffic accident has nothing to do with presuming they possess a weapon.