Lil Baby, James Harden Not Recognized by French Police Who Pulled Them Over, Witness Says

Paris police didn't recognize rapper Lil Baby and NBA player James Harden when they pulled them over on Thursday, according to a witness, the Associated Press reported.

Authorities took Lil Baby as well as his bodyguard into custody and fined him for having marijuana in his car before releasing him Friday, the city prosecutor's office said.

Harden was frisked but not arrested with Lil Baby, the AP said. Lance Avraham Pena, a student who was in the area at the time, said that the language barrier between the police, Lil Baby and Harden seemed to worsen an already tense situation.

"I turned my head and it was unbelievable. I saw Lil Baby and James Harden.... They are standing and are being frisked," Pena said.

At first, Lil Baby did not permit the police, who stopped him upon smelling cannabis in the vehicle, to search his car. Uniformed officers then reached the scene and found 32 grams of cannabis in the car while searching it, according to a French police official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:

Video of the incident shared online shows a plainclothes officer frisking a confused-looking Harden while he holds his phone.

Fans of Harden and the singer in France raised concerns online about racial profiling. But the Paris police department appeared to deflect suggestions the arrest was groundless by tweeting that it was based on an "infraction." Both men are Black, and the police officers white.

A lawyer who has researched racial profiling in France asked, "Would a white person have been stopped the same way?... It's not at all sure."

Lawyer Slim Ben Achour cited research showing that white people in France are less likely to get stopped and frisked or fined for this kind of drug offense. The research also showed that police are more likely to carry out identity checks on Black or Arab men in housing projects known for crime, or in neighborhoods where the assumption is that they "don't belong."

"You see that you can be a millionaire or a superstar and you always have this stigma," Achour told the AP. "Black Americans have their own problems and some think that Europe is better, and they see that...there are common problems."

A representative for Lil Baby did not respond to requests for comment.

Harden posted photos online soon before the arrest of the two friends at various Paris locales.