Rapper Chika Details Her Experience of Being Detained by Police at L.A. Protest

Yesterday (May 31), rapper Chika posted a lengthy Instagram video detailing her experience at a Los Angeles protest over the weekend. In the clip, Chika discusses her and her manager’s calm behavior at an event protesting the killing of George Floyd. She then recounts being handcuffed (with zip ties) and detained for seven hours without being properly arrested and read her Miranda Rights. Chika also stated that for a portion of that time she was kept on a bus with sheets of metal between her and other detainees (she also posted a video from within the bus). Find Chika’s full post below.

During the clip, Chika mentions how she calmly confronted the police, asking why protesters were being told to leave the area. She recalls telling one police officer: “Hey, look me in my face. What are we doing wrong? Cause this is a constitutional right to protest.” Chika said that one officer told her the event was an unlawful protest, using it as a justification for detainment, to which she replied, “No it’s not… you literally can’t tell me that because everybody out here knows our rights.” Chika added: “They said, ‘Well someone set a cop car on fire, and because of them this whole thing is shut down.’”

She continued:

It was a black cop and he said, he was like, “because somebody set that car on fire, all y’all need to go home.” And I said, “So, if you can tell me by that logic, if one cop kills somebody”—and I said this to this man—“if one cop kills somebody, your statement then is ‘not all cops are bad,’ and that’s what you want us to believe, right?… So, if one protester set a fire, how is this entire thing—there’s 10,000 people out here—how is this entire thing somehow unlawful?”

The officer then told Chika, “this conversation is over.” When she asked, “why?” the officer walked away. She also mentions that there is video footage to corroborate everything she said in the Instagram post.

Chika claims that she was detained when she saw police officers approaching her manager, who was attempting to leave the protest at that time. Chika then joined her manager so she wouldn’t be detained alone. Chika also claims the officers weren’t letting her or other detained protesters use a bathroom, drink water, or eat for seven hours. She also mentions being held on a bus without masks, in close quarters, separated by thin metal. When Chika asked “can we go?” she heard officers say, “we’re putting the bodies in cages.” She claims that some people were moved off of the bus, however she remained in the vehicle.

Readers can learn more and donate to organizations effecting change at the following links: The Bail Project, Reclaim the Block, Movement for Black Lives, Know Your Rights Camp, Campaign Zero, The Loveland Foundation, and the ACLU.