As the Black Lives Matter movement takes over the country, the retired tennis pro opens up more about his brush with police brutality, detailing his 2015 arrest in New York due to mistaken identity.
- Jun 12, 2020
AceShowbiz - James Blake (II) is elated to see how America reacted to the death of George Floyd. Five years after falling victim to police brutality while in New York for the U.S. Open, the retired tennis pro opened up about his emotional trauma from the incident and how the Black Lives Matter movement affected him.
During an interview with Billy Bush for "Extra", the 40-year-old claimed that the protests, which took place after the footage of Floyd's arrest went public, "so amazingly encouraged." On the reason why, he noted that the movement displayed that "America still cares. We're not numb. We're not desensitized to this."
Speaking about his own experience being tackled to the ground in case of mistaken identity, the former athlete admitted to still bear emotional scar from it. "I can only imagine if I had fought back," he said. "Thank goodness there is a video, and I don't think people would have believed me if they hadn't. I think often about how lucky I was to get out of it with minimal physical damage."
When Billy pointed out that the difference between black and white is the pigment of one's skin, James was quick to express his agreement. "Underneath the skin, you can't tell the difference, but people have seemed to have these ideas for so long that there's a 'superior' and 'inferior,' and it's just nonsense," he stated.
Prior to his chat with Billy, James also made a virtual appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon". Offering more details of his 2015 brush with police brutality, he recalled waiting for a car to take him to the Open venue "when an officer ran up and just ran into me, slammed me into the wall and threw me on the ground, and cuffed me and had me in custody for about 10 to 15 minutes."
Noting that he was not doing anything wrong at the time, the father of two continued, "And I was standing there just ready to get to the Open and they said I looked like a suspect. Turns out, the suspect was for a credit card scam they were running. Nothing violent. No reason, in my opinion, to necessarily tackle someone."
James then pointed out that back in 2015, there were already "plenty of cases of police violence of black men and women being killed or harmed by the police." The fact, he said, prompted him to tell the arresting officer, "I'm complying 100%. Whatever you say, I'm complying 100%." He added, "Because I know I don't want to be a stat and everything else can be figured out afterwards - you know, any legal battles, their mistake in identity. Whatever it is, it can be figured out later. But, you just comply."
Asked if the officer admitted his wrongdoing, James told host Jimmy Fallon, "The only thing he said as he let me go was that the person they were looking for is still in the area, which doesn't have any effect on me. I got an apology from [New York City mayor Bill] de Blasio and an apology from the police commissioner when they realized what happened - and, they realized there was a video out there. But never an apology from him."
On his battle to seek justice over the incident, James spilled, "I mean, this is why I'm so encouraged right now by today's events is that I screamed and yelled for two years, it took, for me to get any sort of an internal trial against this police officer, to try to get any sort of accountability. And all he lost was five vacation days for this and it was his fifth incident."
Blake's arrest took place outside the Grand Hyatt hotel in New York City. He was reportedly detained for about 15 minutes at the time, and suffered a cut to his elbow and bruised to his leg from being thrown to the ground and handcuffed by an undercover officer.
