Jay-Z’s Team Roc Demands Charges Against Peaceful Protester Be Dismissed
Jay-Z and Team Roc, a social justice division of Roc Nation, are standing behind a protester who was arrested while demonstrating in Charleston, S.C.
On Friday (June 12), following an incident where Givionne "Gee" Jordan Jr., a peaceful protester who was singled out and arrested in Charleston, S.C. after telling officers he respects them last month, now Roc Nation is attempting to get the charges dropped.
According to Rolling Stone, the lawyer shames the police for arresting nonviolent protesters and violating their rights in a statement from Team Roc's Jordan Siev.
"It has come to Roc Nation's attention that in the course of retaliating against and attempting to control these protests, some of Charleston's police have gone so far as to arrest nonviolent, non-threatening protesters solely on the basis of their constitutionally protected speech," Siev writes. "Here one sees a single protester—who does not threaten, provoke or even approach the dozens of armed police officers facing him, kneeling peacefully and expressing his well-justified grief—hauled away from his fellows and unceremoniously arrested by multiple officers. A more clear-cut violation of this protester's First Amendment rights could hardly be imagined. It is our understanding that this is not an isolated incident."
Elsewhere in the statement, Siev encourages Charleston Police Chief Reynolds and other local police officers to release people detained for exercising their rights.
"Act now to release all protesters who have been arrested without lawful cause, and make it known that further acts of repression by Charleston police will not be tolerated," the attorney adds.
This isn't the first time Jay has extended himself to help his community. Last week, Hov sent S. Lee Merritt, the lawyer representing the family of Ahmaud Arbery, his private jet to make sure Merritt made it to Arbery's killers' preliminary hearing on time. Arbery, a Black man, was chased by two White men then shot by one of them while jogging through a Georgia neighborhood in February.
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