Ving Rhames is an international movie star -- best know for roles in
Pulp Fiction, the Mission Impossible franchise, and countless others.
But despite currently starring in the no. 1 movie in the country, the
actor isn't immune to the ongoing reality of racial profiling.
The 59-year-old actor opened up about a scary, racially-charged
encounter with police that happened in his own home during a recent
appearance on The Clay Cane Show on SiriusXM.
"I had a situation, I live in Brentwood, and I have another house in
Santa Monica, California," Rhames recalled. "I'm in my home, it was
around 2:15 in the afternoon. I have a screen door at my Santa Monica
place and then I have a wooden door. I go through the screen door, and
then the wooden door, I'm in the house... I hear a noise in my backyard,
but I'm thinking, you know, the puppies are just running around or what
have you. And then, I get a knock on the front door. So, as a matter of
fact, I was watching ESPN, so I get up, and I'm just in my basketball
shorts, literally. And so, I get up, I open the door, there's a red dot
pointed at my face from a nine millimeter."
Rhames said that after police asked him to open his front screen door,
with one hand, he stepped outside with his hands in the air. To his
recollection, there was one officer "with a nine millimeter pointed at
me," along with two other officers, the captain of police and a police
dog.
"I get out, they recognize me," he said. "The captain of police... he
recognized me because my son played against his [kids'] school... They
recognize me, and the guy, says it was a mistake, they apologize, what
have you. But my problem was -- and then, I said, 'Why are you doing
this?' He said to me, 'A woman called,' this is literally what the
police officer said, 'A woman called 9-1-1, said a large black man was
breaking into the house.' And so they came."
The actor said that after the incident was deescalated, he and some of
the officers went over to the neighbor's house where the 9-1-1 call
originated, though he said that "the person denied it."
"So here I am in my own home, alone in some basketball shorts, just
because someone calls and says a large black man is breaking in, when I
opened up the wooden door, a nine millimeter is pointed at me," he
added. "My problem is, I said to them, what if it was my son, and he
had, you know, a video game remote, or something. And you thought it was
a gun. Just like... I don't know, Trayvon [Martin] had a bag of
Skittles."
The Santa Monica Police Department responded to Rhames' claims in a statement to ET.
"On July 29, 2016 at about 1:52 p.m., Santa Monica Public Safety
Dispatch received several calls from residents of a possible residential
burglary in the 800 block of 23rd Street in Santa Monica," the
statement reads. "The reporting parties indicted a black male was seen
entering a residence and did not live there. Officers from the Santa
Monica Police Department (SMPD) responded to the area with the
information available to them. Within minutes, officers arrived at the
residence. As officers were assessing the residence, they encountered
the resident at the front door. Officers recognized the resident and the
situation was quickly deescalated with no use of force occurring. The
resident was identified as Ving Rhames."
"Following this incident, SMPD launched a city-wide community program
'Meet Your Neighbors' to address situations such as these," the
statement continues. "The program was designed to encourage neighbors to
step out of their comfort zones and get to know each other over coffee,
ice cream or block party. The Santa Monica Police Department
encourages neighbors to become familiar with each other to avoid similar
situations."
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is in theaters now.
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