Comedians Eric André and Clayton English have filed a lawsuit against Clayton County police, whose jurisdiction includes the Atlanta airport, for racial profiling. Last year, André said he was stopped and searched at the Atlanta airport with “no probable cause except for racism,” according to the Los Angeles Times. According to the lawsuit, English was profiled in a similar incident “months apart” from André’s encounter. Both men were stopped on the jet bridge and searched for drugs while other passengers walked passed them and were allowed to board the plane. Both men were asked about drugs.
André described his stop last year on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “I’m down the little narrow awkward jet bridge, two cops appear — these two white cops on that little awkward narrow jet bridge and they whip out their badge like ‘Hawaii 5-0’ style and they’re like, ‘Come with me,’” he said. “I’m business class so I’m the only brown person there. Clearly, they’re singling me out.” André said the officers asked him if he was carrying crystal meth. “The experience was humiliating and dehumanizing,” André said in a press conference Tuesday. “It was degrading.”