Celebs take to streets for historic demonstrations

Jamie Foxx stood shoulder-toshoulder with activists in Minneapolis, proclaiming that “we’re not afraid of the moment.” In Los Angeles, pop star Halsey and “Insecure” actor Kendrick Sampson were hit with rubber bullets during a tense stand-off. And in Chicago, John Cusack was filming a burning car when officers rushed up to him and began screaming at him to leave and, he says, hitting his bike.

Across the U.S., many celebrities have been doing far more than tweeting supportive words or issuing carefully prepared statements. They took to the streets alongside thousands of people to condemn the killings of black people at the hands of police and to demand reform.

Many celebrities turned out Saturday and Sunday at sometimes intense protests in Los Angeles, including one outside a popular, high-end shopping mall where protesters took over a city bus, tagged buildings and burned police cars. Supermodel and activist Emily Ratajkowski waved a sign that read “Dismantle power structures of oppression,” Paris Jackson carried one that said “Peace Love Justice” and rapper Machine Gun Kelly’s said, “Silence is betrayal.” Pop star Ariana Grande tweeted that “we chanted, people beeped and cheered along.”

Sampson was shown at the front of a standoff with police. Some of the details of the video aren’t clear, but Sampson said on Instagram that a rubber bullet that police shot into the ground ricocheted and hit his assistant. The video shows Sampson step in front of his assistant and an officer hit him at least twice with a baton.

“Then an officer aims straight at me, no ricochet, and shoots (rubber bullets)” Sampson wrote. “That was one of seven shots I took. They are excruciating. And they CAN kill.”