Over the weekend, Halsey, John Cusack and Machine Gun Kelly were just some of the big names to take part in the George Floyd protests.
Last week, video showed white police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck during an arrest. Floyd said he could not breathe and pleaded for help, but later died.
All four responding officers have since been fired, and Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington announced on Friday that Chauvin had been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
On Saturday, Halsey reunited with her ex, Yungblud, as they marched on the streets of West Hollywood as part of the Black Lives Matter rally. On Saturday, she documented her experience, tweeting, “[Police] Fired rubber bullets at us. we did not breach the line. hands were up. unmoving. and they gassed and fired.”
fired rubber bullets at us. we did not breach the line. hands were up. unmoving. and they gassed and fired. pic.twitter.com/K8YauF0APn
— h (@halsey) May 31, 2020
She added, “I WAS NOT ARRESTED. Im safe. There were ppl I had to get to safety as many of them have VISAs. Myself + many of my peers were shot, gassed + antagonized. The frontline was calm + did not provoke. BUT MANY ARE NOT SAFE + MANY ARE IN CUSTODY.”
The following day, Halsey went to Santa Monice to participate in another protest.
Emily Ratajkowski also joined Los Angelenos in Santa Monica. She tweeted, “Today was depressing in Santa Monica. 100s of protestors peacefully kneeled & chanted in front of dozens of police cars & national guard vehicles. 2 blocks away young kids were looting the promenade and there were no cops anywhere.”
“The national guard and LAPD basically said ‘go ahead’ to the looting and stayed out of the area instead spending their time tear gassing protesters,” Emily continued. “They want our protests=violence and distraction. They want to reinforce racial stereotypes so that white America, as always, will stand behind their giant guns and machine tanks. I saw all of this with my own eyes today. And I’m so sad.”
Machine Gun Kelly was seen holding a sign, which read “Prosecute Killer Cops” while protesting in Santa Monica. Days before the rally, he said on Instagram, “If you look like me and you have racism in your heart, and on your mind, and coming out your mouth, f*** you. I’m ashamed of you. If you enjoy my music or you like my movies, I don’t want you watching, I don’t want your business. F*** you. I don’t want nothing that’s a part of the evil agenda…step up and speak out for our fellow people going through all this hell right now.”
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Ariana Grande and her new boyfriend Dalton Gomez also stepped out together to protest. Urging the media to focus on the protests instead of the looting, she tweeted, “Hours and miles of peaceful protesting yesterday that got little to no coverage. all throughout beverly hills and west hollywood we chanted, people beeped and cheered along.we were passionate, we were loud, we were loving.”
John Cusack protested Floyd’s killing in Chicago. He tweeted, “It’s nasty as f**k out there, everyone is on edge, things burning- open looting – Magnificent Mile- and all over.”
Cusack also tweeted about a rough encounter with the police, saying, “Cops didn’t like me filming the burning car so they came at me with batons. Hitting my bike. Ahhm here’s the audio.”
In another video, he showed “some of the peace officers – who gently tuned up my bike with their batons.”
These were some of the peace officers – who gently tuned up my bike with their batons- pic.twitter.com/atMf8VaV6l
— John Cusack (@johncusack) May 31, 2020