Cardi B, Ciara, and Diddy called for a change to the U.S. justice system on Tuesday after Minneapolis man George Floyd died after being arrested by white police officers.
Footage from the Monday incident, during which the unarmed black man can be heard saying he was struggling to breathe as a police officer held him down with a knee on his neck, has outraged thousands online and led to the dismissals of the four cops involved.
Numerous stars took to social media to react to Floyd's death, which occurred in hospital shortly after the arrest, and note the similarities between other instances of police brutality, particularly the death of Eric Garner in 2014.
"My heart can’t take it, seeing what’s happened to #GeorgeFloyd," Ciara penned. "This is eerily similar to the death of #EricGarner. There has to be a stopping point in the process of arresting someone. It’s all senseless."
Rapper Cardi wrote on social media: "Enough is enough! What will it take? A civil war? A new president? Violent riots? It’s tired ! I’m tired ! The country is tired!
"You don’t put fear in people when you do this you just show how coward YOU ARE ! And how America is really not the land of the free!"
Sean 'Diddy' Combs also reacted, sharing an emoji of praying hands in reaction to the senseless death, while Viola Davis put the racial imbalance of the situation and others like it into perspective.
"This is what it means to be Black in America. Tried. Convicted. Killed for being Black," the actress explained. "We are dictated by hundreds of years of policies that have restricted our very existence and still have to continue to face modern day lynchings.
"Here's the thing......America will never be great until we can figure out a way for it to work for EVERYBODY!!!"
FBI officials and Minnesota state authorities are investigating the incident.
"Being black in America should not be a death sentence," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey tweeted on Tuesday. "For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a black man's neck. Five minutes. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense."
