Social media users share an article with a headline attributing the quote to actor Denzel Washington. While the actor made similar remarks about those who criticize law enforcement, “I support the police on BLM, do not dismiss it!” is not a direct quote from him.
The article titled “Denzel Washington: ‘I Support Police on BLM Do Not Lay Down Them!’ (Black Fans React) ”can be seen here and other articles with similar headlines can be seen here and here.
Washington is known for its role as law enforcement in films such as Training Day, Out of Time and Inside Man (www.imdb.com/title/tt0139654/, www.imdb.com/title/tt0313443/, www.imdb.com/title / tt0454848 /).
The article is dated January 31, 2021 and says that Washington spoke in a recent interview about his respect for the police.
It’s true: in a video interview with Yahoo Entertainment on January 27, 2021, Washington talked about his appreciation for law enforcement while talking about his new movie The Little Things (www.imdb.com/title/tt10016180/) in which he plays the role of a detective. The interview and an accompanying article can be seen here (here)
In the interview, Washington is asked how much attention is paid to the fulfillment of law enforcement roles following ‘recent events’ and discussions about policing. The article says that policing in America is ‘heavily investigated’ following protests by Black Lives Matter (BLM) and calls to ‘defend the police’, although these phases are not mentioned in the video.
In response, Washington recalled calling a sergeant to prepare for his role in the film Ricochet (www.imdb.com/title/tt0102789/) and the manner in which the police officer spread a difficult incident through remain calm and unresponsive.
Around the point at 1:30 he says of the incident: ‘in a moment it taught me … what our law enforcers are dealing with .. I have the utmost respect for what they do, for what our soldiers do. , who sacrifice their lives […] I just do not care about people who underestimate such people. If it were not for them, we would not have had the freedom to complain about what they do. ”
In the summer of 2020, the largest protests in the United States were for racial justice and civil rights in a generation, giving the BLM movement a global profile. The protests were sparked on May 25 by the death of George Floyd, a black man killed after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes (here).
Some supporters of the movement are critical of the police. The movement “defends the police” ahead of the current protests and is driven by anger over the militarized attitude of many U.S. police departments and by the recognition that they are being asked to confront social ills, including addiction, mental illness and homelessness. , can be better addressed by spending on social services and reconsidering what behaviors crimes should be considered. (here)
Washington’s comments received backlash from social media users online, with examples visible here , here , en here .
The quote in the headline is not mentioned directly in the article or the interview, and to say that he supports the police ‘about’ Black Lives Matter ‘would be speculative. Alan Nierob, a representative of Washington, confirmed to Reuters that the quote was false.
A Google citation search returned no results, except for similar articles. The quote is not visible on Washington’s social media (here and here ) and also not reported by any major news organizations.
VERDICT
Misleading heading. Actor Denzel Washington did say he respects law enforcement and does not care about those who lay it down, but did not say the words directly attributed to him in the quote circulated online.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.