REAL Housewives of New York star Leah McSweeney has shared a poignant reminder of her white privilege in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.
The reality star, who has been arrested and later won a lawsuit filed against the NYPD, shared an image which simply read: “If I was a black male, I’d be dead ten times over.”
She captioned the post: “This seems as relevant today as it did years ago when I first made it.”
Her comment comes after Minneapolis man George Floyd died after Officer Derek Chauvin was filmed kneeling on his neck during an arrest as the black man shouted “I can’t breathe.”
The arrest was carried out after George allegedly trying to use forged documents at a local deli.
In 2002 Leah threw a bottle of water which hit a cop in the back. He then allegedly punched her and knocked out her tooth before arresting her.
She went on to sue the New York police department and settled for $75,000.
RHONY viewers have also seen Leah trash her co-star Ramona Singer’s Hamptons home during a party.
Removing her clothes, Leah sais: “I’m going to get naked, I’m going stir-crazy.
“There’s just only so much talking about yachts and déclassé that I can really handle before I’m like, ‘This is how I have fun. Watch and learn.’”
Leah then went on a rant about the tiki torches before she and Sonja threw the fire-lit sticks into Romona’s grass.
“I hate these tiki torches! F**k you. They suck, they represent bulls**t!” Leah screamed.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey revealed on CBS on Thursday that he believed 46-year-old George was “killed because he is black” and that the “arresting officer killed someone.”
When asked if he believes that the incident was murder, Frey replied “I do.”
“I’m not a prosecutor, but let me be clear, the arresting officer killed someone. As to the precise charge, I’m not going to get into that.”
The mayor then went on to say “he’d be alive today if he were white.”
George worked as a security guard at a Latin American restaurant called the Conga Latin Bistro in the city.
He had worked at the restaurant for five years, and Conga customer Jessi Zendejas said in a Facebook post that the security guard “loved his hugs from his regulars.”
“[He] would be mad if you didn’t stop to greet him because he honestly loved seeing everyone and watching everyone have fun,” Zendejas wrote on social media.
Minnesota Police said George died after a “medical incident” in a “police interaction.”
On the afternoon of May 26, Mayor Jacob Frey confirmed the four officers involved in the incident had been “terminated”.
Mayor Frey described the incident as “completely and utterly messed up”.
He said: “I believe what I saw and what I saw is wrong on every level. Being black in America should not be a death sentence.
“For five minutes we watched as a white officer pressed his knee to the neck of a black man. For five minutes. This officer failed in the most basic human sense.”
Protests broke out on Wednesday night in the city as residents took to the streets to demonstrate their anger at the death of George Floyd.