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Policeman left red-faced after two young pranksters show up state of 'racial profiling' | Policeman left red-faced after two young pranksters show up state of 'racial profiling' |
(about 1 hour later) | |
A pair of YouTube stars have posted a video online of a police officer stopping and frisking them both while they are dressed in cultural Muslim clothing, in what they claim highlights the problem of racial profiling in the US. | |
The pair, who post prank videos on YouTube under the name TrueStoryASA, decided to test a random police officer and walked past one while dressed in Western clothes and speaking in American accents. | |
They then start pushing and shoving each other and fighting before walking off, directly in front of a policeman, who watches them but does not speak to them or intervene. | |
Twenty minutes later Adam Saleh and Sheikh Akbar then walk past the policeman a second time, each in long robes and putting on accents. Saleh, who is wearing a headdress, pokes Akbar in the chest as the pair start arguing. | |
They are instantly stopped by the policeman, who demands to know why they are "dressed like this", before shoving them both against a wall for causing a "public disturbance". | |
The police officer frisks them both, asking: “Do you have weapons on you?” and “What’s in your pocket? Is this a gun? A knife?” while grabbing a mobile phone. | |
In the video called "Racial Profiling Experiment", the men then turn around and explain that 20 minutes beforehand they had walked past the police officer in Western clothes, and that he had watched them fight, push each other around, and walk off without him intervening at all. | |
Saleh and Akbar posted the video and explained they had been filming a new video for their YouTube channel while wearing their cultural clothing and had been continually “followed by police”. | |
As a result, they decided to make a video about racial profiling in the US, they said. | |
“Too many innocent people get stopped and frisked every day because of what they wear or their skin colour," they said. | “Too many innocent people get stopped and frisked every day because of what they wear or their skin colour," they said. |
“We’re against people stereotyping others because of what they wear or what skin colour they are." | |