Photo via @Ericperrytv/Twitter, @TheKorTurn/Twitter
March 11, 2022, 11:15 am*
Ryan Coogler, award-winning director of hit films such as Black Panther and Creed, was detained by police after they were called following his attempt to withdraw a large amount of cash from his bank. For reasons that definitely involve racism, the teller reportedly suspected Coogler, who is Black, was trying to rob the bank, despite him providing his bank card, PIN, and ID. The teller allegedly received some kind of “alert notification” on his account and told her manager he was a thief.
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At the Bank of America location in Atlanta, police were called and approached him at the counter, one drawing a gun for a moment before replacing it and handcuffing Coogler. They then took him outside where they had detained his friend and the personal medical physician he was trying to pay with the cash withdrawal, who were waiting in the car.
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Police body camera footage of the incident was soon released to the public.
In the video, he explains that he wrote a note to the teller, presenting it with all the information necessary to prove he had an account full of hit movie director money, asking her to count the money in another room and not at the counter. He was trying to withdraw $12,000 in cash, and says that when he’s done this before to pay his healthcare worker, he’s gotten stares from other bank customers and didn’t feel safe walking out with all the money people then knew he had in his pocket.
“I would like to withdraw $12,000 cash from my checking account,” the note read. “Please do the money counter somewhere else. I’d like to be discreet.”
This sort of request is far from unheard of, but we can’t remember an incident like this, in which the customer is detained at gunpoint in the middle of the bank, happening to a rich white person in the U.S. It has also been noted that Coogler has a speech impediment, which is another reason for communicating by note instead of whispering or something to the teller that he wanted a lot of money withdrawn from his account without everyone knowing about it.
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Outside, as Coogler explained what he was doing and why to the Atlanta police, he appeared visibly shaken — an understandable reaction considering the pattern of U.S. police brutalizing and killing Black men over nothing.
“I ain’t had guns on me in a while, bro,” he told them. “It’s a major problem, man… I just had guns drawn for taking money out my own account.”
Bank of America later issued an apology to Coogler and said in a public statement that they “deeply regret that this incident occurred.” It remains unclear if they would have done so had Coogler not been rich and famous. Coogler, however, says he has settled things with the bank.
“This situation should never have happened,” he said. “However, Bank of America worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction and we have moved on.”
The larger public, however, has not moved on. This incident echoes other frightening and potentially deadly experiences that Black men have had at banks simply for trying to move around more money than the bank teller and/or manager thought they should have. Some might recall the Detroit bank where they called the police on a Black man with a large check to deposit, having just settled a racial discrimination lawsuit, accusing him of fraud.
Many feel that this is another example of how America’s white supremacist roots are again showing themselves, demonstrating how even wealth and fame can’t protect Black folks in the U.S. from systemic racism. Though some have tried to dismiss this discussion by saying that the teller was Black and one of the officers was a man of color, this only points to how deeply racism can infect everyone and everything in the society it impacts.
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This Ryan Coogler thing
It’s weird to me how people are going so hard to justify the teller being “shook” enough to tell her manager she thought it was a bank robbery. The truth is that she & the manager were incompetent b/c they didn’t verify his ID. Period.
— Mekishana Pierre (@mekishana) March 10, 2022
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Saw the body cam footage of what happened to Ryan Coogler:
1. Why were the police called? Ask for his damn ID. Maybe try that.
2. TW: seeing the officer immediately draw his gun.
3. Why were cuffs necessary?The levels of anti-blackness w/ terrorizing overpolicing. Scary.
— Robert Daniels (@812filmreviews) March 10, 2022
*First Published: March 11, 2022, 11:14 am
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