(AllHipHop News) Filmmaker Spike Lee has accused U.S. leader Donald Trump of trying to be “a dictator” in a powerful attack on the President.
The “Do the Right Thing” director has been a vocal opponent of Trump ever since he started running for office, and Lee insists he’s directly responsible for America’s current race and division issues.
Spike is far from impressed with Trump’s response to the unrest across the U.S., telling the BBC, “He’s a gangster, he’s trying to be a dictator.”
The President has threatened to send in troops to stop growing civil unrest across the U.S. if governors and mayors don’t crack down on looting and violence, and on Monday, Trump walked from the White House to a nearby church to hold up a Bible, after demonstrators were cleared from his path.
“I was watching this last night with my family and we were all screaming in disbelief that this thing was staged,” Lee adds. “This show of force – gassing, beating innocent, peaceful bystanders so you could clear the street so you could take a walk to the church. It was ridiculous.
“The Bible did not look comfortable in his hand, and he didn’t look comfortable holding the Bible either. I have never seen something like that before in my life, particularly with a world leader.”
Violence erupted on the streets of cities across America last week following the death of 46-year-old African-American George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.
All four cops involved have been fired and one, Derek Chauvin, has been arrested and charged with murder – he was caught on camera kneeling on Floyd’s neck for close to nine minutes.
Over the weekend, Spike Lee released a short film combining footage of Floyd and Eric Garner, who was killed while being arrested in 2014, with a scene from his 1989 film “Do the Right Thing” in which the character, Radio Raheem, is murdered.
“People are angry because black people are being killed left and right, cops walked away free,” Lee says. “Black and brown people are angry at the disparity between the haves and have-nots – education, drinking dirty water, racism. People are angry for a reason. It’s not like you’re just born angry. You’re angry because you live every day in this world where the system is not set up for you to win…
“It’s a stupid analogy, but if you leave the pot on the stove, the water boils.”
