Seahawks star Michael Bennett released a statement on Wednesday morning detailing an encounter he had with Las Vegas police after the Mayweather-McGregor fight following a report of gunshots fired at Drais nightclub. Bennett was taken to the ground, handcuffed, and detained by officers for 10 minutes before they realized he was not involved in the shooting (that never even happened, the report of gunshots fired was false).
Video showed all of those things happen, and Bennett also alleged that officers put a gun to his head and threatened to shoot him if he did not cooperate. The Las Vegas Police Department has denied the allegations of threats to shoot him along with Bennett’s assertion that it was racial profiling that led to his mistaken arrest.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell released a statement offering support to Bennett and calling for the issues Bennett raised to be taken seriously by “leaders in our community.” Bennett has obtained legal counsel and may pursue a civil rights lawsuit against the Las Vegas Police Department.
The Las Vegas Police Department’s latest move has been to call upon Goodell and the NFL to launch an investigation into Bennett’s claims. In the letter to the league, the LVPD notes Bennett’s flag protests as if that counts as evidence against his character, as well as noting that the two officers that detained Bennett were both minorities.
https://twitter.com/Vanessa_Murphy/status/905845854128529408
The inclusion of Bennett’s protests during the national anthem are erroneous and a clear attempt to paint him as someone that can’t be trusted when it comes to his accounts of what happened with police officers.
While the NFL may condone Bennett’s disrespect for our American Flag, and everything it symbolizes, we hope the League will not ignore Bennett’s false accusations against our police officers. …
Later, the police department mentions that a “fair investigation” is needed, noting Bennett’s suspicious actions of running and hiding (as one would do if there were reports of gunshots being fired), and made sure to state that the two officers were minorities themselves, thus making arguments of racial profiling immediately false in their minds.
I am sure that your attorney will tell you, our officers had reasonable suspicion, which is the constitutional standard, to detain Bennett until they could determine whether he was involved in the shooting. Our officers, who are both minorities, had the legal right, and obligation, to detain Bennett based upon the nature of the call and Bennett’s unusual and suspicious actions. our officers did not detain Bennett because he was, “a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Why the police department would need the NFL to be the ones to hold a “fair investigation” into the matter, rather than their own abilities to do so as law enforcement is telling — as is the defensive tone the entire letter takes. The NFL has not issued a response to this latest request from the LVPD.
