Ice Cube Responds After Death of George Floyd

Ice Cube voiced his disdain for police on Tuesday (May 26) after watching a Minnesota officer allegedly suffocate a Black man by kneeling on his neck Monday night.

“How long will we go for Blue on Black Crime before we strike back???” he tweeted in response to the widely circulated video. In the clip, the arresting officer appears to kneel on the victim’s neck for at least seven minutes before the man going unconscious, reports CBS Minnesota.

The unarmed man, named George Floyd, told officers repeatedly that he was struggling to breathe, but his pleas were ignored. After fans chimed in with their comments on Twitter, Cube fearlessly doubled down on his initial tweet, saying, “Anybody coming at me for what I said ain’t ready to do s–t…”

In 2015, Cube told Billboard how he felt that police brutality was still a recurring issue that plagued America: “I think it’s the same. What we got to do is hold these dudes more accountable. We need body cameras on all these cops and we need it to be a federal offense if they tamper with those cameras, manipulate those cameras in any kind of way, or obstruct those cameras.”

He added: “And we need these good cops to start snitching on these bad cops. They talk s–t about our neighborhoods for having a no-snitch policy, but they have a no-snitch policy in their department, and that’s the problem. The good cops need to point out these bad cops, get them out of here, and get your dignity and respect back from the community.”

Police spokesman John Elder spoke to reporters about how the Memorial Day incident went down. “After he got out, he physically resisted officers,” said Elder. “Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs, and officers noticed that the man was going into medical distress.”

Police also shared that Floyd went to Hennepin County Medical Center after falling unconscious. He died shortly after.

“We all watched the horrific death of George Floyd on video as witnesses begged the police officer to take him into the police car and get off his neck,” said Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney who’s representing the Floyd’s family. “This abusive, excessive, and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge.”

See Cube’s tweets below.