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Meek Mill Detained by NYPD After Nightclub Appearance, No Weapon Found
New York City witnessed a brief but dramatic Halloween weekend for rapper Meek Mill, who was temporarily detained by NYPD officers outside a Manhattan nightclub early Saturday morning. The 38-year-old Philadelphia native was released without arrest after a police search for a firearm yielded no weapon.
Videos circulating online show Mill, whose given name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, with his hands behind his back, questioning officers’ actions amidst a crowd of onlookers. According to reports from TMZ, police were responding to a 4 a.m. call regarding a man with a firearm. Authorities subsequently stopped a vehicle matching the provided description and license plate.
Following a search, no weapon was discovered, leading to the release of all three occupants of the car, including Mill.
The rapper took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his frustration and “embarrassment” over the incident. “They just pulled me out of the car and cuffed me in front of the whole club, embarrassed the s–t out of me in NYC!
I’m not scared to go outside without a gun … they had guns in my face for no reason smh I thought it was a prank,” he wrote. He later added, “they tryna get me……..”
This incident highlights Mill’s ongoing outspokenness regarding the criminal justice system. In 2023, he became visibly emotional while discussing his personal experiences with probation during the signing of a new probation reform bill by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Mill’s lengthy history with probation, stemming from a 2008 conviction for drug and weapons charges, had often put him at risk of re-incarceration for technical violations.
Governor Shapiro’s bill aims to guide judges away from using minor technical violations as grounds for returning individuals on probation to jail. Mill reflected on his past struggles, noting that even routine actions like driving his son to school in New Jersey while on probation constituted a technical violation.
“Every time I crossed the Ben Franklin to go pick my mom up to take my son to school in New Jersey, I was actually committing a crime the whole time from technical violations,” Mill stated at the time. “I thought that it was either I go to jail, or I take my son to school, and I ended up taking my son to school, so I want to thank you guys here today.
I don’t want to get emotional because it’s a lot.”
He emphasized the challenges faced by individuals trying to improve their lives after past mistakes: “We all grew up in the streets and we tried to be better, but they labeled us as felons and sent us back to jail. I had to fight against that the whole time to gain my respect and be who I am today, and I’m proud of that.”