CNN’s Bakari Sellers Calls Cops Out for Arresting Black Reporter and Not White Reporter: ‘They Are a Block Apart’

CNN commentator Bakari Sellers called out police in Minneapolis over the arrest of Omar Jimenez on live television, noting that Jimenez was complying with the cops, and that a white CNN reporter was not arrested.

Viewers got an intense dose of reality Friday morning when Jimenez and his entire crew were arrested on camera, despite complying with the Minnesota State Patrol’s directions and pleading with them for guidance.

Minutes later, as the Jimenez crew’s camera continued to roll following their arrest, CNN correspondent Josh Campbell called in from the scene to report on the aftermath of that arrest.

In reacting to the arrest shortly thereafter, Sellers pointed out how that disparity in treatment illustrates the tensions at the heart of the issue.

When co-anchor Alisyn Camerota called the police’s actions “inexplicable,” Sellers told her “It’s inexplicable until you realize that they just killed a black man on the street not long ago, and you know I don’t want to say that it’s a lie, but it’s a lie.”

“Law enforcement, from what we heard from producers, is saying that one of the reasons they were arrested is because they weren’t complying and they didn’t move, and they were in the wrong spot. And we can see it with our own eyes,” Sellers said.

He went on to note that “at CNN we have a white reporter on the ground, and we have a brown reporter on the ground. They are a block apart. The brown reporter is arrested, and the white reporter is telling us what’s happening.”

Sellers then channeled the stock apologia for police racism, saying “There is a large segment of the population that has this theory about respectability politics. And they’re going to tell me that all you have to do is be a professional, all you have to do is comply, all you have to do is use your nice inside voice and the police will leave you alone.”

“We saw a reporter who is educated, who is brown, who is doing his job better than anybody around, was in harm’s way, letting the American people see what’s going on on the ground. He complied, he said he would move, and you know his family’s heart is beating right now because he is locked up in prison and killers are still roaming the streets free,” Sellers said.

“You almost have to laugh not to just be furious, because this is America in 2020, and I hate to be cheesy, but the revolution literally is being televised,” Sellers concluded.

Watch the clip above via CNN.