A police dashcam video seems to contradict actress Taraji P. Henson’s claims that her son was racially profiled by police at USC.
The 40-minute video obtained by the Los Angeles Times shows that Glendale police followed proper procedure when Marcell Johnson was pulled over on Oct. 18.
The officer who was driving behind Johnson’s Honda Civic observed the 20-year-old driving through a lighted crosswalk while a pedestrian was walking on it.
The officer pulled Johnson over and discovered that the youth was driving without his insurance information as required by law.
Johnson told him his name, and for good measure he mentioned that his mother was the actress Taraji P. Henson.
The officer asked if Johnson was carrying anything illegal, and the young man responded he was carrying marijuana and a Ritalin pill. Johnson told the officer he had a medical marijuana license but he didn’t have it on him. And he didn’t have a prescription for the Ritalin pill.
The officer asked Johnson if he could search his car. Johnson gave permission, but the officer couldn’t find the Ritalin pill.
Johnson said he might have left the pill at a friend’s house.
“You know you’re not supposed to have that, right?” the officer told Johnson.
During the lengthy traffic stop other officers arrived on the scene. A further search of the car turned up hash oil, marijuana, a small knife and a grinder. The police determined that the knife was legal.
The officer decided to give the kid a break. He confiscated Johnson’s weed and gave him a notice to appear in court to prove he held a state-issued marijuana license.
Taraji made headlines when she accused the Glendale police of profiling her son during that traffic stop. In an interview with Essence magazine, Taraji said her son followed police orders and that his car was searched illegally.
She told the magazine she had planned to send her son to USC but she changed her mind and decided to enroll him at Howard University, an HBCU in Washington, D.C. instead.
She told Essence magazine she was “not paying $50K so I can’t sleep at night wondering, ‘Is this the night my son is getting racially profiled on campus?’”
She should be worried about him dying from a drug overdose. Taraji has a typical single mother mentality.
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