Police say Britney Spears ultimately “hit herself in the face” in Las Vegas incident
After viewing video footage of the incident between Spears and the NBA's Victor Wembanyama, police said no charges will be filed
Aux News Britney Spears
Las Vegas police have issued a statement today regarding an altercation that happened this week between singer Britney Spears and NBA star Victor Wembanyama, announcing that no charges will be filed in regards to the incident. Detectives stated that they’d looked over video of the incident—which took place on Wednesday night, and in which Spears approached Wembanyama while he was walking through a Las Vegas casino complex—and determined that Spears ultimately “hit herself in the face” after her hand was pushed off of Wembanyama by one of his security staff.
Spears has previously stated that she was “backhanded” by Wembanyama’s security after she attempted to tap him on the shoulder, suggesting in a note posted on Twitter that her own security staff handles such incidents in a less violent fashion, and tacitly calling for an apology from Wembanyama and his team. (Wembanyama recently became the NBA’s latest No. 1 draft pick, having signed on to play for the San Antonio Spurs.) The NBA star, meanwhile, gave an interview yesterday in which he stated that he’d felt someone “grab” him while walking into a restaurant, and walked away without looking back, leaving his security personnel to handle the matter.
So far, neither side has issued a comment regarding the police statement today. Per the Associated Press, police said video of the incident “showed Britney going to tap the Spurs player on the shoulder. When she touched the player (redacted) pushes her hand off of the player without looking which causes Britney’s hand to hit herself in the face.” Police determined that the security personnel did not “willfully or unlawfully use force or violence against Spears,” and said that no arrests would be made. Security staff for both celebrities were interviewed, with both sides apparently stating that “pushing a hand off someone’s shoulder is a standard response.”
77 Comments
Sounds like my brother got a job doing security for Wembanyama.
LMFAO, this is the first thing I thought of.Be very scared, we think alike.
i’m guessing the “stop hitting yourself” bit from Nelson was actually a lot of people’s go-to upon reading the headline
Yeah, that’s the stuff.
This woman was not ready to live independently.
I didn’t know people with brain matter actively leaking out of their ears were a big demographic here on the AVClub, but the amount of stars on this comment has shown me otherwise.
*Curb Your Ethusiasm theme kicks in, roll credits*
Even with all this nonsense, I consider her the greatest living Louisianian
Over DJ Khaled and Jared Leto? Bold!
Whew, there’s a list…
Wendell Pierce would like a word…
And that word is an f-bomb
Huey Long will have your ass for this!
Are there Long truthers who believe he wasn’t really assassinated and is still waiting to take power and share the wealth (or be a fascist dictator depending on your opinion of the Kingfish)?
Knowing Qanon and how much Louisiana still likes him, almost certainly.
The Manning family have entered the chat
i think any random Popeye’s Chicken sandwich is probably better than the greatest Louisianian
You’d say that, but they just brought back the blackend Cajun chicken sando and it Just. Doesn’t. Hit. As. Hard.
I don’t know about this “Baby One More Time” joke that’s popped into my head.I assume somebody enjoyed that frog-throat singing style she used, although I can’t fathom why…
she should demand that she publicly apologizes to herself!
Don’t touch strangers, Britney.
Don’t touch strangers, Britney.
Spears spent years surrounded by her own security. She should’ve known better than to approach unannounced. The video shows that this was a complete nothingburger that Spears blew out of proportion.
You’d think that but its probably the opposite is true. She knows she’s a celebrity so the normal rules of social engagement for us pleebs don’t apply to her ilk. She, like plenty of other famous people, just assume they are recognized by everyone at all times and accommodations will be made for them
Does give off some Lena Dunham “random white lady with money not getting enough attention from Odell Beckham, Jr and making it everyone else’s problem” vibes here.
“That’s America for you!” as she said in a weird voice
nah, as much as I love me some Spears, I don’t think she’s someone who comes with a bunch of ulterior motives. And if you watch the video, security swings first, Spears just lifts her hand to protect her face.
You can’t see everything, but it looks like she’s reaching up to tap the guy on the shoulder, and the security guy does a kind of windmill motion to first knock her arm up and back and then bring it down. She definitely gets hit by something, but whether he caught her on the down swing or just whipped her hand into her own face isn’t clear. I’m also not sure it matters. You shouldn’t sneak up on and try to touch famous people even if you’re famous, and security probably let her get too close before registering her so the reaction was a little more frantic than it could have been. A couple of minor lessons for everybody, but ultimately nobody’s a monster.
Her hand gets lifted, because they slap her hand off of Wenbanyama, which is a pretty basic reaction for security to have for some random person running up and touching their protectee. It looks like she wanted to tap him on the shoulder, only managed to touch his lower back because she’s short, he’s a giant, and he’s moving away from her. It’s possible she mostly made contact with his shirt (since he’s skinny and his clothes are baggy). He probably felt her attempted tap as someone tugging on his shirt, which would explain why he said someone grabbed him. I don’t think anyone is lying, here.The only surprising thing in the video is Spears not understanding that the rules about touching strangers that her own security have doubtless had to enforce against countless fans of hers also apply to other celebrities. It’s not ulterior motives, it’s just a sense of privilege, same as it was with Dunham.
I think Dunham(who I still think is a great writer), was coming from a place that was rooted in a little more racism. This is just Britney being completely unaware since she’s literally Britney Spears.
Maybe I’m misremembering the OBJr incident, but that always seemed to come more from Dunham’s raging insecurity about her attractiveness than any actual racism. I agree that Spears’s motivations weren’t racial—she’s lived her whole life in a bubble, and not one of her own making. From inside that bubble, I’m sure it never occurred to her that any newly-minted celebrity might be anything other than flattered and honored by her attention (even if he was still in grade school when the prime of her career ended), or that his security wouldn’t immediately recognize her when she rushed up behind him. That’s the privilege I’m talking about.
“as much as I love spears” then goes on to prove that you literally only see what you want because you love spears? Idk what your statement was supposed to do lol
Victor Wembanyama is 2 feet taller than Britney. Did she bring a step stool to tap him on the shoulder?
Well, she didn’t of course, as you can see in the video. Her hand brushes against his back. This is all heavily editorialized to make her look as though she has committed minor assault and deserves to be struck.
Lol she invaded someone’s privacy, someone who employs others to NOT allow that to happen. Those employees did their job. Brittany is entitled, and trying to weaponize white tears to bring some random dude down when he ignored her (as is his right because her relevance is non-existent to people under the age of 25).
Batshit.
Watch the video. No one’s head snaps back like that unless they’ve been sucker-smacked. The guard is an asshole. A security guard should have his head on a swivel, not just back hand a warm body in his periphery. One of these days he’s going to smack someone bigger and richer.
The guard did have his head on a swivel. His concern was preventing VW from getting swarmed as they got bottlenecked going into the restaurant. There was a crowd in front of him and an unknown rushing in from the rear. He knocked Brit’s hand off the player and kept his arm up to create space between his charge the potential threat. Hell even Spears’ own security people told the cops that bodyguard performed the standard response for that situation.
No one anywhere cares what you think.
LOL. NO one’s head snaps back from what the guard did. She overreacted. She thought she was special and could go up to Wemby unannounced. She got treated the way her own bodyguards treated fans.
Cchrist626What kind of username is that? Go back over to Jezebel and keep trolling the folks justifiably defending Spears so that you stay solidly in the greys. I did learn a new word over there: “Jock sniffers.” Get yourself really high on that and don’t come and see me later.
uhhh no. Don’t touch strangers. If she was at her residency and someone randomly touched her, her security would 10000% react the same way.
Still, according to the video it’s nice to see she completely lied about being nearly knocked to the ground or whatever. Pretty nasty thing to claim, leveraging her fame and position to try and destroy a man’s life even after getting an immediate apology… AND apologizing to him. Pretty gross.
We need another Jezebel vs Roots article on this. As long as AvClub bot didn’t make one.
FYI:
The dudebra
(account: dudebraa) imposter
account posting here in
this thread is NOT the
long-established
account user known in the Giz
family.
The
shriveled-soul imposter has
several accounts being used to
harass Kinja users, by
posting sexist, racist
and other vileness here
, but primarily on The
Root and on Jezebel,
trying to discredit the actual,
long-established account
users.If the real dudebra does post here, it’ll be account: dudebra and won’t be racist.
I was just about to point that out. Dudebra doesn’t come off as some sniveling little fuck.
The call to misogynists has brought the numbers today. Very confident behind your screens and phones. “Police said…” Yes, that going to be the truth.
You’re an extremely unintelligent person.
As opposed to the call to racist white women against black people as yourself. Always the victim even when touching and harassing someone without their consent. Using racist coding to vilify these men. This is what privilege looks like.
I don’t trust anything the cops say
Cool, no one asked you or cares what you think.
I’m taking you out of the greys to tell you this is a comment section. It’s literally here for people to say what they think, you illiterate bootlicking piece of shit.
Right – and the things you say and think are fucking idiotic. And definitely keep using buzzwords. It really comes across intelligently.
It’s funny. I looked at your comment history and it’s mostly just you telling people no one cares what they think when they post a comment you don’t like. Not really worth engaging with.
I’ve come to realize that guy just lashes out at others with phrases that he’s probably been told all his life by his mommy. There’s just no way a non-maladjusted person without deep-seated self-esteem issues gets as weirdly personal as he does over offhand comments that don’t directly concern him.
Yeah probably. It’s either that or you’re a loser and the same lack of intelligence that’s made you unsuccessful in every facet of life is once again leading you astray.
I bet you’re the Cartman of your friend group
I believe that you believe that.
Yet here you are engaging. SO BRAVE
bUzZwOrDs
Yeah, they’re not illiterate nor bootlicking. But you are for sure a racist dipshit. The police okay when Britney filed her report. And we all fucking cops will side with black men over rich white women. Like seriously listen your fucking self asshole.
lmao
You sound like a total douche. Jesus, get a grip.
it’s a lazy stance they took lol, he swung first. Not saying any charges need to happen tho, weird incident where Spears looks like she’s sneaking up on her old pal and gets swatted in the face.
Since they are legally sanctioned to lie, whenever they please, me either.But sometimes they do it just to F with you which is why I often say “Blue lives splatter.”
Who hasn’t, metaphorically, hit their own face in Vegas?
Wow, the LVPD just treated Spears like she was one of us!
This bullshit excuse is fucking irrelevant because even if it was her hand that made contact the momentum was created by the security guard. There was no need for that regardless of whether she’s a celebrity or not. She’s like 5’1″ and 99 lbs, this was completely unnecessary and he’s a dick.
Agree. The people here justifying this behavior seem to have some kind of personal grudge against Spears. Mostly dudes, I’m guessing, who could only have dreamt of getting this close to her once. And they say women are petty,…
Sorry, no. I am very sympathetic to Spears, to the weird sexualization she had to endure, the conservatorship, and generally towards all child stars because they have a part of their lives taken away from them. This has nothing to do with her gender. If Timothy Chalamet did the exact same thing, same result, I would say the same thing: stop touching people without permission. If anything, I would argue it has more to do with an entitled southern white woman believing she could touch a black man whenever and however she wanted. Seeing as how she already has a prejudice against black people, as evidenced here: (https://www.xxlmag.com/britney-spears-blacklash-black-rappers-marijuana-use/) She’s a celebrity, she should understand touching someone without asking or knowing them is going to garner a response. She could easily have communicated with the security, through her own security, whatever, but she’s an entitled person with some mental health issues who thought it would be okay to touch someone without permission.That’s something we teach children from a young age. Most people who haven’t been rich and catered to most of their lives know that. Britney did not, and the appropriate response occurred. She’s learned a lesson, hopefully.
Also, why lie about being knocked to the ground when video doesn’t support that? It’s because she’s weaponizing her white woman tears:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1367549420985852So, in summation, Brittany Spears fans are completely dismissing poor behavior because she herself was a victim of a shit situation up until recently. Nobody deserves what she went through, but it also doesn’t give her the right to do whatever she wants, when she wants.
AC-slater, is it?You were compelled to write three long-winded screeds justifying why Spears required a beating. I hope you’ve got it our of your system.
Lol someone 5’1″ and 99lbs can have a knife, or a gun in america, and this kid’s whole life basically just began with this career starting.
Oh fuck off
This is a weird amount of defending of an older white woman touching a young black boy without his consent. Let’s substitute Leo Dicaprio for Brittany (though he’s much more relevant now) and Nico Parker for Wemby (She’s the young woman who played the daughter in HBO’s Last of Us series). Do you think it’s okay for a 50yo man to touch a 19yo girl without her permission in a crowd? Simply because he’s Leo DiCaprio?
I doubt it, and if you answered “yes”, there’s something already fundamentally wrong with your social skills.
This is a not remotely surprising amount of defending the security guard (LOL) of an athlete who you’re salivating over. Bye, boy.
“salivating over an athlete” lol you’re basically arguing against a strawman you’ve made yourself. What do you describe your intransigent defense of Spears? Is an irrelevant popstar not equal to a rookie athlete? You’re what’s wrong with America. I’m guessing you’re a big Trump fan too, because MAGA morons tend not to listen when they’re wrong and respond exclusively with emotion.