“That is not peaceful protest. Let’s not kid ourselves,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said as he promised a full investigation.
A number of artists have stepped up over the weekend with messages that align with their fans who have hit the streets to protest following the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Killer Mike, Cardi B, Lil Wayne, Beyonce, Billie Eilish, and Rihanna have all shared messages that fall in line with that of protestors all across the country.
Other acts have joined protestors in the streets including J. Cole in Fayetville, NC. But at least one artist has seen their protest efforts end in arrest. Chika joined a peaceful protest in Los Angeles on Saturday, things turned for the worst as she was arrested in the middle of her protest.
Sharing multiple videos to her Instagram, the first video showed Chika on a bus where she revealed that they were getting cited as a result of their participation in the protest.
“Hey y’all, so we’re on the f*cking bus, they’re calling us bodies in cages,” she said in the video. “As of right now they’ve let us know that we’re getting cited. I’m in here because I watch them put their hands on my manager, while she was trying to leave. I said ‘Hey, she walking away,’ and they said, ‘Get her too.’ Nobody in this bus did anything wrong, every single person here is in here unlawfully. The dude next to me is pissed, he’s been here for five hours. I’m okay though, I’m f*cking okay, y’all don’t worry.”
Chika would also share a video of her attempts to disperse and calm down the crowd during the protest, despite later being arrested for failure to disperse. Upon her release she returned back to her home where she shared another video, one that lasted more than 30 minutes and detailed the events that led up to her arrest as well as what occurred after.
Chika is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Jaylen Brown drove 15 hours from the Boston area to his hometown of Atlanta to stage a peaceful protest on Saturday, and the Boston Celtics wing got some support from another NBA player who delivered a powerful message of his own.
Malcolm Brogdon marched with Brown, who orchestrated the protest an asked for people to join him on social media amid nationwide outrage and community action following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota while in police custody earlier this week.
Celtics player @FCHWPO says “I drove 15 from Boston just to be here.” as he leads a peaceful protest at the MLK memorial site. #11alive pic.twitter.com/6heGVpqfCb
— Hope Ford (@hope_iam) May 30, 2020
“Remember why we’re here!” Protest turns into March lead by @FCHWPO who drove 15 hours from Boston just to be here for a peaceful protest in his hometown #11Alive #bostonceltics pic.twitter.com/uhow5F2Lon
— Hope Ford (@hope_iam) May 30, 2020
Brown stressed the protest would be peaceful and chronicled the march on social media, sharing on Saturday a message from both himself and the Indiana Pacers guard.
“I got a grandfather who marched next to Dr. King in the 60’s,” Brogdon said. “He was amazing and he would be proud to see us all here.”
Brown shared his own reasoning for orchestrating the protest, saying that regardless of his status as an NBA player he needed to support his community and advocate for change.
Jaylen Brown on his IG live from Atlanta: “Being a celebrity, being an NBA player doesn’t exclude me from no conversation at all. First and foremost I’m a black man and I grew up on this soil.” pic.twitter.com/7pD09VYouk
— Chris Grenham (@chrisgrenham) May 30, 2020
“Being a celebrity, being an NBA player doesn’t exclude me from no conversation at all,” Brown said of protesting in his hometown. “First and foremost I’m a black man and I grew up on this soil.”
At the conclusion of the march, he advised people to disperse and get home safely.
“Disperse. Be safe and go home.” Says @FCHWPO as he ends the two hour long peaceful protest/ march that started and ended at the MLK Center for Nonviolent Social Change. #11alive #AtlantaProtests pic.twitter.com/RK5B7XMfLj
— Hope Ford (@hope_iam) May 31, 2020
He later expressed frustration that three people had been detained by police in Atlanta from his group and asked those he marched with to help him identify who was detained, presumably to help with their legal expenses.
3 people were wrongfully arrested today this was a peaceful protest!!
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) May 31, 2020
Brown later shared messages on Twitter about violence from police officers across America this weekend, including one from Tobias Harris of the Sixers, who also marched in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Who gets to arrest the officers acting out during these protests?!?
— Tobias Harris (@tobias31) May 31, 2020
Do not confuse the response of the oppressed with the violence of the oppressor
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) May 31, 2020
During the current worldwide pandemic, movie studios are no longer providing box-office figures because theaters have been shut down around the nation and the world. Because we are less interested in the actual figures themselves and more interested in what people are watching over the weekends, each week we will dive into Most Streamed and Bestseller Lists on Fandango, iTunes, Netflix, and Hulu to pinpoint the weekend’s most watched films.
There was not a whole lot of movement this weekend on either the Netflix or the VOD charts, in part probably because of the launch of HBO Max, which basically flooded home viewers with a number of new options, like The Joker, Slumdog Millionaire, and one of last year’s best films, Ready or Not. Unfortunately, HBO Max does not yet break out its most popular movies, but it’s safe to say that a lot of people were probably rewatching Harry Potter films.
There was almost no movement on the VOD charts, which remain painfully stagnant. Scoob!, Trolls World Tour!, The Invisible Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Bad Boys for Life continue to dominate, as they have for most of the pandemic. The only wrinkle here is that The Invisible Man has jumped to number one on the iTunes rental charts, as it came available for the $5.99 rental price (instead of the $20 VOD price).
Meanwhile, there was one new entry at number three on the iTunes rental chart and number 11 on the Amazon Prime Video chart: The High Note, starring Tracee Ellis Ross as a superstar musician and Dakota Johnson as her overworked personal assistant. Critics note that the movie is lightweight but enjoyable, and it’s earned a 69 percent on the Tomatometer, while audiences like it even more (77 percent).
There’s not much shaking on Hulu, either, except that Rocketman, the Elton John biopic, is available as counter-programming to Bohemian Rhapsody, which is now on HBO Max. Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway’s very poorly reviewed The Hustle is also now available.
Finally, over on Netflix, Adam Sandler and/or Happy Madison hold the top three spots, which may be the truest sign of the apocalypse! Actually, the very good Uncut Gems, made available on Netflix earlier this week, holds the top spot, which makes sense. The 2011 romcom Just Go with It, with Jennifer Aniston makes less sense. Meanwhile, Happy Madison’s The Wrong Missy sits at number 3, and it might be the first movie since we began tracking at home viewing to be in the top 5 three weeks in a row on Netflix. Extraction was probably sampled more in its first two weekends, but it had fallen out of the top five by the third weekend of its release.
In any respect, last week’s top Netflix film, Lovebirds, fell to number four, while the original Despicable Me sits at number 10. I should note, too, that Matthew McConaughey’s 2011 film The Lincoln Lawyer is at number six, and it’s a very good legal thriller.
Next weekend will see the release of Judy and Punch starring Mia Wasikowska and Damon Herrimanon VOD, The Last Days of American Crime starring Edgar Ramirez on Netflix, and Ad Astra starring Brad Pitt on HBO Max.
🎶So no one told you life was gonna be this way🎶 —Me, singing the Friends theme song while adding these products to cart.
