Comedian Dave Chappelle said several days ago that a police officer choked him on a movie set in New Orleans in 1992, and has since elaborated on the story in another show.
Chappelle first recounted the incident during a show in New Orleans, related by Times-Picayune writer Jarvis DeBerry.
DeBerry described the show as “uncomfortably topical,” ranging from Bill Cosby to the death of Eric Garner after being placed in a chokehold by a police officer.
Chappelle brought up his own alleged experience of policy brutality, recalling that he was working on his first movie, where he played a mugger. Chappelle had ducked under some police tape on-set, when a police officer spotted him and immediately attacked and placed him in a chokehold:
The weirdest thing about being a black man being choked by the police, Chappelle said, is that you don’t even wonder why it’s happening. You just think, he said, “OK, here we go.”
DeBerry noted as a caveat that Chappelle’s shows forbid the use of cell phones, so he recounted the story purely from memory. But Chappelle added to the story in a subsequent show, according to The Hollywood Reporter:
Chappelle pointed out that that back in the nineties, New Orleans had one of the most corrupt police departments in the country. He said that this was also when the city’s police were not paid very well. “I’m not defending the police,” said Chappelle, to clarify.
