Taraji P. Henson has publicly apologized for accusing the Glendale, Calif., police of racially profiling her son Marcell.
The Empire star posted an apology about her earlier perception of the incident to Instagram.
Henson had previously leveled the accusation about the cops in an interview with Uptown Magazine . “My child has been racially profiled. He was in Glendale, California and did exactly everything the cops told him to do, including letting them illegally search his car. It was bogus because they didn’t give him the ticket for what he was pulled over for. ” In the same interview, she also accused USC police of racially profiling her son.
Dashboard video of the October 18 traffic stop, however, shows the non-confrontational Glendale officer explaining to Marcell Henson, 20, that he pulled him over for driving through a lighted crosswalk without yielding. “[Henson’s] race was not apparent in the video as he was driving,” the Los Angeles Times noted .
During the encounter, the actress’s son informed the officer that marijuana was in the car and that he had smoked some pot two hours before getting behind the wheel. He passed a field sobriety test.
“So I am going to give you a citation for the marijuana. I am not going to give you a citation for running that yellow because that would actually put a moving violation on your driving license, and you are going to have to go to traffic school and all that stuff, so I am helping you out by not giving you a violation on it. All I am going to do is take the weed from you,” the officer told Marcell Johnson at the end of what was apparently a 40-minute traffic stop.
Yesterday, Taraji P. Henson, 44, posted the following message to Instagram, which was accompanied by the hashtags #TurningANegativeIntoAPositive and #LoveTarajiPHenson.
“I would like to publicly apologize to the officer and the Glendale Police Department. A mother’s job is not easy and neither is a police officer’s. Sometimes as humans WE overreact without gathering all the facts. As a mother in this case, I overreacted and for that I apologize. Thank you to that officer for being kind to my son.
Love,
Taraji P. Henson”
Watch the partial footage of the Marcel Henson traffic stop that apparently prompted his mom Taraji P. Henson, the star of the Fox TV breakout hit Empire , to issue an apology to the Glendale PD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHNLalsVGCU
[Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images Entertainment]