INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Celtics’ Jaylen Brown criticized the city of Beverley Hills and its police department after officers shut down a panel he hosted Saturday evening for 741, his footwear and apparel brand.
Brown said police ended an event held at 7 p.m. at a Beverly Hills mansion Saturday night, costing him “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“We had a pop-up talking about culture, talking about the future of independence, creative control, et cetera. A bunch of different people that were just there to just talk about positivity in the community,” Brown said Sunday after the NBA All-Star Game at Intuit Dome. “And it just seemed somebody didn’t want that to happen.”
The city of Beverley Hills said in a statement that a permit request for the event was declined.
“On Saturday, Feb. 14, the Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD) responded to an event taking place at a private residence in the Trousdale neighborhood of the City. An event permit had been applied for and denied by the City due to previous violations associated with events at the address,” the statement said. “Despite the fact that the permit was denied, organizers still chose to proceed with inviting hundreds of guests knowing that it was not allowed to occur. BHPD responded and shut down the unpermitted event.”
Brown said he and his team never applied for a permit because they didn’t need one.
“We’re doing a panel. We’re doing stuff that’s positive. There was nobody that was inconvenienced. It was not, it wasn’t blocking traffic. … It’s All-Star Weekend, it’s Saturday night and it’s 7 p.m. Like, what are we talking about?” Brown said. “And the city that had an ordinance to shut us down, no matter what the owner of the house said, no matter what we tried to reason with. There was no working with (them).
“They didn’t try to work with us. They didn’t try to have a conversation. They came right in and shut everything down. So the statement they put out is completely false. I stand by that. My team operated with the utmost respect to the neighbors and everybody, and they were harassed to some degree. People can make of it what they want.”
Brown wouldn’t say why he thought his event was targeted.
“The owner seemed like he was pretty upset. He wants to file a lawsuit because it’s his house. They’ve done multiple events there, and there’s never been an issue,” Brown said. “He’s done four or five events even that week, he said, and it was never an issue. So it seems like, I don’t know, from the information that I’ve gathered from my team, it just seemed it’s only one conclusion you can make.”
Asked if he believed racism was the reason, Brown didn’t go into specifics.
“All I’m gonna say is that everybody else that did something in activation, it seemed to be no issues,” Brown said.
Brown did not say who the owner of the house was. Property records list True 90210 LLC as the owner.
