Jay Z and Beyoncé May Have Paid Bail for Baltimore Protesters, Says Collaborator

At the height of political unrest in Baltimore last month, as protesters were being arrested by the hundreds, Jay Z appeared to remain silent on the issue of police brutality. The rap mogul was criticized on Twitter for aggressively promoting his music streaming service, Tidal, at a time when he could have voiced support for protesters marching after the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died while in police custody.

Detroit-based activist and Jay Z collaborator Dream Hampton presented a different side of the story on Sunday when she suggested that Jay Z may be silently supporting Baltimore protesters with his checkbook rather than his social media presence.

In a series of now-deleted Tweets archived by Complex magazine, Hampton implied that Jay Z wired tens of thousands of dollars toward bailing out protesters in Baltimore, and that he’d done the same for protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, after black teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer. Hampton, who worked with Jay Z on his autobiography, Decoded, also suggested that Jay Z and Beyoncé had generously funded many chapters of the Black Lives Matter movement, which was created after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2013. 

Hampton did not respond to TakePart’s request for comment, and her reports have not been confirmed with Jay Z, but she shares strong ties with the artist who once boasted about posting $50,000 bail in the song “Guilty Until Proven Innocent.” Hampton, a writer and filmmaker, reportedly enlisted Jay Z to convince the Cleveland Cavaliers to wear “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts at an NBA game in December, according to The New York Times. The T-shirts were an act of solidarity with protesters after a grand jury’s decision not to indict a New York police officer who put Eric Garner in a fatal choke hold. 

While Hampton’s tweets about Jay Z have since been deleted, many of the remaining tweets raise questions about the American prison system and its use of bail as a form of punishment—which has become a major point of contention in the wake of hundreds of protester arrests in Baltimore. 

For example, 18-year-old protester Allen Bullock, who smashed a Baltimore police car with a traffic cone and was charged with eight criminal counts, was held on $500,000 bail after turning himself in to authorities, The Guardian reported on April 30. Meanwhile, the six officers charged in Gray’s death, which was ruled a homicide, were released from jail after posting bail—which ranged from $250,000 to $350,000—on the same day it was assigned, May 1.  

Bullock, whose arrest drew national headlines, wasn’t the only protester who faced a six-figure bail following charges. Gerard Anderson, 28, who was charged with malicious destruction and felony burglary, was assigned a $100,000 bail, despite his pro bono attorney’s request to set it at $25,000, The Associated Press reported on April 30. Assistant Senior State’s Attorney David Chu had asked that bail be revoked in several cases that day. 

High-profile cases in Baltimore, where nearly a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, have helped contribute to mounting skepticism about the bail system, which favors those who can afford to pay it.