Guy Sebastian Recalls Horrific Incident When LA Cops Held A Gun To His Head
Guy Sebastian has opened up about an incident while living in Los Angeles that saw a police officer holding a gun to his head.
While appearing on KIIS FM’s iHeart Radio Countdown last week, the 38-year-old singer explained that while he’d been living in the States, his car had been illegally towed and he’d reported it to police as stolen, not realising it had been towed. He’d managed to track it down with the help of a witness, and called police to let them know. While he was on hold, he says he went to a nearby carwash.
“I’m sitting in this car wash, washing this car, and all these police converge on me with guns drawn,” he said. “To them, I’m driving a stolen car.”
Guy said he tried to explain the situation but was told to “shut up” and get on the ground. It was while he was on the ground that an officer put a knee to his back and aimed a gun at him.
“He actually had a gun pressed into my forehead,” he said. “It was full-on. I could feel the metal of this gun and there was so many of them.”
He said in the police's defence: “They deal with extremely heavy-handed members of the public and criminals. It’s not like [in Australia]. Everyone’s got a gun.”
This incident as Guy describes it is quite telling of the excessive force used by police against people of colour in the US. The Black Lives Matter movement began in America on May 25, when George Floyd was brutally killed by police in custody, and large and widespread protests took place across the country.
There was hope among Indigenous activists that the outrage felt towards racism and police brutality overseas would give non-POCs reason to reflect and demand change on the same unjust systems and horrific acts here in Australia against First Nations Peoples. Critics say that the movement in Australia has unfortunately been watered down; though protests are still taking place.
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