American neo-soul artist Ari Lennox was arrested shortly after arriving in Amsterdam on Monday, 29th November.
Lennox live tweeted the incident as it unfolded. She started by posting “Hi Amsterdam”, but one hour later she tweeted “Fuck Amsterdam security. They hate black people.” From there, the situation escalated in a hurry, with Lennox’s next tweet, five minutes later, saying, “I just want to go home. I’ll never leave my house again.”
Then, a further 15 minutes down the track—one hour and 20 minutes removed from the initial “Hi Amsterdam” tweet—Lennox posted back-to-back updates saying “They’re arresting me” and “I’m being arrested in Amsterdam for reacting to a woman racially profiling me”.
https://twitter.com/AriLennox/status/1465253413214695424
Reuters reports that the incident took place at Schiphol airport, the Netherlands’ main international airport. Dutch military police are in charge of security at Schiphol. Robert van Kapel, a spokesperson for the airport security unit, told Reuters that they “found a woman full of emotions, that wouldn’t calm down. That’s why she had to be taken into custody.”
Reuters also reports that Lennox was being held because of “aggressive behaviour towards an airline official, and for being drunk in public”. Van Kapel couldn’t confirm when she’d be released from custody as police were investigating claims of “possible threats made by Lennox during the incident.”
Lennox is signed to J. Cole’s Dreamville label. Her debut album, Shea Butter Baby, came out in 2019. Its title track went platinum in the US.
