Paris police release rapper Lil Baby
After being fined for having cannabis in his car, the rapper posted on Instagram “I’m Good.”
PARIS >> Paris police released rapper Lil Baby from custody on Friday after fining him for having cannabis in his car, according to the city prosecutor’s office. He was stopped along with NBA star James Harden, who was frisked but not detained. Lil Baby’s arrest on Thursday along one of the French capital’s most upscale avenues shocked fans of both high-profile Americans, in town for Paris Fashion Week. It also resurfaced questions about racial profiling in France.
After his release, the rapper posted on Instagram “I’m Good” and said that he was heading back to the U.S.
Plainclothes police stopped Harden, Lil Baby and his bodyguard because a strong smell of cannabis was coming from their car, according to a French police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to be publicly named. The official said that Lil Baby, whose real name is Dominique Jones, initially refused to allow police to check the car. The situation was tense because the Americans didn’t understand what was happening. Uniformed officers then arrived and proceeded to search the car, finding 32 grams of cannabis, according to the official.
Lil Baby and the bodyguard were taken into custody on suspicion of transporting drugs, and released Friday morning after being handed fines, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Fans of Harden and the singer in France raised concerns online about racial profiling. But the Paris police department appeared to deflect suggestions the arrest was groundless by tweeting that it was based on an “infraction.”
Both men are Black, and the police officers white.