Police Arrest Comedians Filming A Sketch

In a bizarre arrest caught on camera, a group of comedians from Instagram sketch group GoBrum had guns pulled on them by police officers while filming a sketch in a British park. To be fair, the sketch did involve two masked and armed men (with fake guns, obviously), pretending to hold up another man, who was acting disabled in order to get out of being robbed. The sketch probably did look like it could have been a dangerous situation from a distance. (And, as an aside, it wasn't funny at all.) But once the cops got in closer and could see that it was a bit being FILMED with a CAMERA and FAKE GUNS, they still arrested the comedians, and in a quite dramatic fashion.

At close range, the officers drew guns and ordered the men to drop to the floor, completely ignoring the fact that the comedians were complicit, apologetic, and trying to explain that the situation was harmless (and were very calm and polite in doing so, despite the cops being total assholes). With blinders on, the police scream at them, without even making an attempt to assess the situation. When the camera man goes down, it sounds quite aggressive, and is yet another testament to how jumpy police officers are around black people. (Is that even still considered presumptuous of me to say at this point?) I mean, if this were a bunch of skinny Jewish comedians making the same sketch, would they have reacted so violently and with such unmitigated bias? Or would they have stopped to listen, taking in the fact that there was a camera rolling and the whole thing was fake for a sketch?

Take, for instance, this point in the video, where one of the actors is laying on the ground with a cop pointing a gun at him. The comedian says "Sorry mate, we were just filming," at which point the cop calls them all "f*cking idiots" and screams in a hysterical tone for him to get down (which he obviously already is). It's not that we blame the police for checking in with the situation (given that there were pretty realistic fake guns being used), but it might be fair to question whether they would have reacted as uncompromisingly and hysterically had they been approaching non-black people. And even if you don't buy that it was racially charged, you can't deny that the police are escalating a situation here, bringing high drama where the people they're trying to arrest are being very calm and complicit.

Anyway, racial implications aside (if you want, I guess), it's still downright terrifying to consider the fact that one something you've done is deemed criminal by police, there tends to be very little (if any) room to change their minds, as you can see of in the screen shot of this police office brandishing his gun. Once that snap judgment has been made, even the calmest, most cooperative individuals will have a hard time convincing some police officers to re-consider their initial judgment. I mean, all this shouting and drama and arresting could have been avoided if the police had have just listened to the totally non-violent, incredibly polite comedians trying to explain what was going on. They could have even watched the sort of offensive and unfunny video the comedians were making as proof, rather than totally flying off the handle. You know how the saying goes: "There's no use pulling your gun on spilled milk."

Watch the video below, and see what you think.

Images: YouTube(3)