Ving Rhames recalls the time a neighbor called police on him at home

2025-04-27 18:09:25admin

In America, even fame can't protect black people from the life-threatening dangers of white fragility.

While promoting Mission: Impossible: Fallout on Sirius XM's radio show The Clay Cane Show, actor Ving Rhames revealed that he himself was the victim in a terrifying encounter with the police, after a neighbor mistook him for a robber.

Rhames has of course been a part of the core Mission: Impossible crew since the series began in 1996. He's also taken on notable roles in such classics as Pulp Fictionand Dawn of the Dead.

SEE ALSO: 5 things white people can do before they call the cops on a black person

During the Sirius XM interview, Rhames recalled how, earlier in the year, he was simply watching TV in his Santa Monica house one afternoon when he heard a noise outside followed by a knock at the door.

"I get up, I open the door, there's a red dot pointed at my face from a 9mm [pistol], and they say, ‘Put up your hands.’ Literally," he said.

The cops -- which included the officer aiming the gun, another behind him, and two to the left of him with a police dog -- told Rhames to walk outside with his hands up. By sheer coincidence, one officer (who Rhames remembers being a captain with the Santa Monica Police) recognized him.

Ironically, the cop didn't recognize Rhames from his many roles in popular movies. He actually recognized the actor from when their sons played on opposite teams in a high school basketball game.

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"They recognize me, and the guy says it was a mistake, and they apologize what have you," he recalls.

But when Rhames asked them what had even brought them to his residence, the officers explained that a woman had called saying that, "a large black man was breaking into the house. And so they came."

The officers then escorted Rhames to the the neighbor in question across the street and, when confronted for her racist assumption, she denied it.

Though Rhames luckily escaped the situation unharmed, his mind jumped to all the ways it could have easily ended in tragedy.

"Here I am in my own home, alone with some basketball shorts and just because someone calls and says 'A large black man is breaking in,' when I open up the front door a 9mm is pointed at me," he said. "My problem is: What if it was my son and he had a video game remote or something, and you thought it was a gun? Just like, I don’t know, Trayvon [Martin] had a bag of Skittles."

Rhames also thought back to the 2006 case of Sean Bell, a New York City man just like himself, who was shot fifty times by the NYPD on the night of his bachelor party, just a day before his wedding.

"There are so many incidents where this happens," Rhames concludes.

Sheer luck led to a quickly resolved situation in his case. But the possibility of fatalities is an ever-present threat every single time a white person needlessly calls the cops on everyone from a young boy mowing the grass to a man wearing socks at a pool.

You can listen to the full clip featuring Rhames's story above.

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