John Cusack Live Tweets Chicago Protests, Attacked by Police for Filming and ‘Hit by Pepper Spray’

John Cusack put himself right on the front line in Chicago Saturday night, filming the protests that turned into riots in the wake of George Floyd’s killing on May 25 in Minneapolis.

The actor shared several videos throughout the night to his 1.6 million followers on Twitter, bringing live updates of the violence and unrest that has gripped the nation.

Cusack was out with protesters for hours on Saturday, filming the peaceful protests through the daylight hours and even sticking with it as things grew more tense and violent once darkness fell.

He also shared and retweeted stories and video from others at protests across the nation, admitting that he obviously isn’t capturing the whole story. “Just reporting what I have personally seen today,” Cusack acknowledged in one tweet. “I obviously don’t have a full picture.”

But the picture he did have certainly captured enough to get a picture of the growing unrest sweeping the nation even as the man, former officer Derek Chauvin, who held his knee on 46-year-old George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, long after he’d passed out after pleading and saying, “I can’t breathe.”

Chauvin has been arrested on 3rd degree murder charges while no charges have been brought as of yet against the three other officers on the scene, and reportedly also kneeling on 46-year-old Floyd, who was handcuffed and lying face down on the concrete.

Chicago is just one of more than two dozen cities to have enacted curfews amid daily and ongoing civil unrest in the wake of Floyd’s killing.

That hasn’t stopped passionate protesters from taking their outrage to the streets, whether peacefully or in escalating violence such as the burning of a police precinct in Minneapolis and police car fires in multiple cities.

It was while filming a car fire that Cusack says he was attacked by police, though. In a short clip, he can be heard calmly agreeing to leave the scene as a cop shouts at him violently. It’s easy to imagine how that could have turned if he’d not complied so meekly. Earlier, he’d also tweeted that he’d been hit by pepper spray.

He stayed on the streets several hours after this incident as well, capturing the aftermath of extensive looting of private property as well as police barricades as authorities tried to enforce the city’s curfew.

At one point, a fan asked how famous actor John Cusack was able to walk around for so long filming without getting recognized, and he credited the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Fans were so moved by Cusack getting actively involved in the movement and protests that they got his name trending on Twitter, with a few even going so far as to say he was doing a better job of reporting from the ground than some of the major news networks.

Still others expressed shock and outrage that the police attacked him, hardly perceiving the unassuming actor as a threat. But remember, he was wearing a mask so police didn’t know who he was any more than everyone else out there.

As for whether or not such force was necessary, only history will tell how the police response to the peaceful and non-peaceful protests is perceived. We can only imagine there is incredible tension on both sides.

You can check out some of the reactions to John Cusack, roving riot reporter, below — and check out more of Cusack’s protest coverage on his Twitter feed: