Killer Mike Breaks Down Your Rights With Police and Says the Feds Got It Wrong With Don Lemon [Video]

Killer Mike used his platform at the Grammys this weekend to give people a primer on handling law enforcement encounters and to make clear what the Constitution actually protects. He tied that lesson to the controversy around the federal arrest of Don Lemon.

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Federal agents took Don Lemon into custody days ago on charges tied to his coverage of an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church that disrupted service, and his arrest has ignited a national fight over press freedom and rights under the First Amendment.

During a chat with Baller Alert on the Grammy red carpet, Killer Mike laid out the basics of citizen rights when police show up

“We should be supporting those people on a local level, but on a national level, we don’t know to do anything when we don’t understand.” He reminded folks what’s actually illegal and what the Constitution protects: “When the police come in your house without a warrant, that is illegal. When the police ask you to incriminate yourself, you have the right to invoke your Fifth Amendment rights.”

On free speech, he broke it down plain: “The First Amendment gives you the right to publicly say, the First Amendment gives you the right to publicly assemble, gives you the right to have religious freedom, and also protest government.”

In Mike’s view, that’s why what Don did was within his American rights: “So what Don did was right in being an American, but the government did what’s wrong.”

That stark framing of constitutional basics is exactly what a lot of people are missing in the heat around Lemon’s arrest and what rights look like in real life.