Comedian, actor and television host Eric Andre tweeted his account of a harrowing experience at the airport. While moving through the Delta Terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, plainclothes officers stopped Andre and performed a random drug search. As the search was taking place, the Bad Trip star was the only person of color in the area.
“I was just racially profiled by two plainclothes Atlanta PD police in Delta terminal T3 at the Atlanta airport. They stopped me on the way down the bridge to the plane for a ‘random’ search and asked [if] they could search me for drugs. I told them no. Be careful,” Andre tweeted.
After assessing the situation further, Andre tweeted that he may not have been stopped by members of the Atlanta police force. The comedian noted that he could have been stopped by members of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, not Atlanta police. Fortunately, Andre said that he was “fine” after the incident and was able to move about the airport afterward.
As Andre’s encounter with law enforcement made its way around social media, a number of public officials chimed in. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms even responded publicly.
“Sorry to hear about your experience. It’s my understanding that this was not APD, but another one of the many agencies working in the airport,” the mayor tweeted.
“The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is somewhat unique in that multiple law enforcement agencies operate there. It appears this incident involved members of another agency. Additionally, members of APD’s Airport Drug Interdiction Unit do not randomly approach travelers and ask to search them. Searches are conducted based on some type of evidence or indication of criminal activity,” the APD told Variety.
Despite the department’s claim, there is no readily available “evidence” or “indication” that Andre engaged in “criminal activity” at the airport. Neither Andre nor Delta have commented further regarding the matter.
