Ironically, the 36-year-old Lipscombe was filming a Public Service Announcement about how great the city of Edmonton is when the incident occurred. The video shows the actor walking down a sidewalk, approaching a street where a car is stopped at a red light. Someone in the car can be heard yelling, “The ni****s are coming! the ni****s are coming.!” The 6’3″ 260 pound former high-jumper walks over to the car, bends down and opens the front passenger door. There is a bit of a struggle as the actor asked them to say the same thing to his face but the men in the car denied they said anything.
When the light changes, the passenger, a middle-aged balding white man, manages to close the door and the car speeds off. One of the men in the car then yelled the same racial slur.
Lipscombe posted the video on his Facebook page Wednesday. CTV News reported yesterday that 19 hours after the video was posted, it had been shared more than 2,000 times and viewed over 700,000 times.
The Globe and Mail quotes Lipscombe as saying yesterday he would like to thank the man who yelled the racist insults. He said it gave him, the city and the country an opportunity to talk about something that should be talked about. He also said he has no regrets about approaching the car. Lipscombe said when someone makes him feel uncomfortable, he likes to make them uncomfortable in return.
The actor added these things happen to blacks and Muslims on a daily basis and there is still a lot of work to be done.
Mayor Don Iveson issued a statement yesterday afternoon saying he knows Lipscombe personally and no one in the city should ever be exposed to these types of hateful comments. He also said there is a continuing need for anti-racism initiatives in Edmonton. The mayor added had spoken to Lipscombe and told him how atrocious he found those comments to be.
Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht said the matter could constitute a hate crime but as of yesterday no formal complaint had been made. The chief promised to conduct a complete investigation should a complaint be made to police. Despite what happened, Knecht would not classify Edmonton as a racist city. The veteran cop said he has worked in 16 cities and all of them have racist elements among the residents.
Lipscombe wrote on his Facebook page, “Edmonton is better than these fools!”
