Less Champagne, More Activism: Drake Pens Open Letter About Alton Sterling Shooting
Scrolling through Instagram on a Wednesday night rarely has the ability to alter my day. But yesterday was different. Buried deep beneath my feed of selfies and sunsets was an open letter from Drake (or @champagnepapi to his followers), addressing the vexing shooting of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man from Louisiana who was killed outside a Baton Rouge convenience store early Tuesday morning during
An alarming video, shared widely online, shows two officers wrestling Sterling, who had been selling CDs outside the store, to the pavement. An anonymous person had called the police on Sterling after he had allegedly threatened the caller with his gun. As police tried to control Sterling on the ground, a police officer yells, “He’s got a gun!” Shortly thereafter shots are fired and the cell phone video turns quickly away from the violent interaction that would soon turn fatal. Five shots in total can be heard. (A different video from another angle shows Sterling being shot.)