Hours after Clayton County police released a statement saying Eric Andre was not racially profiled during an interaction with officers on a jetway at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the comedian appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and disputed the police account.
Andre made headlines Wednesday after posting a series of tweets saying he was stopped by two plainclothes officers while boarding a flight to California. The comedian claimed he was racially profiled when they asked to search his luggage, but not anyone else’s.
He initially tagged the Atlanta Police Department and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, but the department quickly denied any involvement in the incident.
Clayton County police later confirmed their officers spoke with Andre as he boarded his flight, twice calling it a “consensual encounter” and saying Andre agreed to let them search his bags.
“During the encounter, Mr. Andre voluntarily provided the investigators information as to his travel plans,” the department’s statement said. “Mr. Andre also voluntarily consented to a search of his luggage but the investigators chose not to do so.”
In a second statement released Thursday, a department spokeswoman refuted the comedian’s claims that he was racially profiled.
“At the conclusion of the encounter, pleasantries were exchanged between our officers and Mr. Andre, and Mr. Andre continued on his way,” the department said.
During an 11-minute interview Thursday on the late night talk show, Andre told Kimmel he had just left the Delta lounge and was preparing to board his flight when he was approached by two officers in the narrow jetway.
“They whip out their badge, like ‘Hawaii Five-0′ style, and they’re like, ‘Come with me,’” Andre said, adding it was business class and he was “the only brown person there.”
“Clearly they’re like singling me out,” he said. “It was all white businessmen and then me.”
He said the officers began interrogating him and asked what drugs he had. At one point, they asked if he was transporting crystal meth to Los Angeles, said Andre, who told Kimmel the encounter made him feel like Walter White from the hit television series “Breaking Bad.”
Andre said the interaction made him nervous and “undid any buzz” he got from the piña colada he enjoyed moments earlier in the airport lounge.
“They’re doing like old-school Giuliani stop-and-frisk racial profiling,” he told the studio audience, referring to New York City’s former mayor. He said he didn’t think the officers realized he was famous when they first approached him.
According to Andre, he did not give the officers consent to search his bags, contradicting the Clayton County Police Department’s version of events. Upset by the encounter, Andre said he began tweeting as soon as he got to his seat on the plane.
“I’m like tweeting at the mayor of Atlanta, I’m tweeting at the Atlanta PD, I start tweeting at Joe Biden,” he said. “I don’t know it’s Clayton County police. I’m tweeting at everybody, all angry, the whole flight. And I’m drinking like vodka-tonics. I’m just getting more drunk and angry.”
Andre said he was surprised when Atlanta’s mayor tweeted back at him, telling the studio audience he didn’t think his tirade would actually work.
In the tweet, Bottoms said she was sorry to hear about the interaction, but said APD was not involved. Andre said he later learned the officers worked for Clayton County, which he referred to as “the more boring county next door” to Atlanta.
At one point during Thursday’s interview, Andre reached into his pocket and pulled out a printed copy of the initial Clayton police statement. He and Kimmel poked fun at their use of the term “consensual encounter.”
“It’s like they were trying to deep French kiss me or something at some point,” Andre said.
“It wasn’t consensual. They whipped out a badge and they were like, ‘Come with me,’” he continued. “I didn’t really have a choice ... That’s a lie. That’s a bold-faced lie.”
Andre said the only drug he had in his bag at the time was the hair loss treatment Propecia.
In a statement released Wednesday evening after the comedian’s tweets went viral, airport officials said they plan to meet with Atlanta and Clayton County police next week to “review procedures.”
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