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‘The Wire’ Actor Wendell Pierce Arrested For Allegedly Hitting Bernie Sanders Supporters

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 00:49 PST, May 16, 2016

The Wire actor Wendell Pierce was arrested for punching Bernie Sanders supporters. Pierce, who also starred in Treme, was handcuffed at an Atlanta hotel over the weekend for allegedly hitting a woman who voiced her support for the Democrat Socialist candidate. Pierce is reportedly a Hillary Clinton supporter.

Wendell Pierce, 52, was arrested during the early morning hours on Saturday at Loews Atlanta Hotel. He was in town to film a new movie. According to a TMZ report, The Wire actor began a conversation with a couple and all went well until the topic turned to politics. The man and woman were allegedly explaining why they were Bernie Sanders supporters before the incident took place. The Treme star allegedly pushed the man and then grabbed his girlfriend by her hair and hit her in the head.

https://youtu.be/gME6-8GLnZc

After the physical altercation with Wendell Pierce allegedly took place, the couple fled to their room at the Loews Atlanta Hotel and immediately called security. Atlanta Police Department representative Donald Hannah said the arrest went smoothly and The Wire actor never noted that he was a celebrity, Fox News reports.

The Atlanta Police Department will release the arrest report to the public once the incident review has been completed. Pierce was booked into Fulton County Jail on a charge of simple battery. He was released later the same day on a $1,000 bond.

Wendell Pierce recently completed filming an HBO movie, Conformation, about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He returned to his hometown of Louisiana when he played Antoine Batiste in Treme, also an HBO original series. The part was reportedly created with Pierce in mind. The popular show depicted life in NOLA beginning three months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Crescent City.

Pierce did not actually play the trombone his character was always packing around in Treme, but he did take lessons from a professional musician to make his stage impressions look credible. Although he grew up in perhaps the greatest music city in the country, Pierce said his actual horn playing experience was limited to just a couple of weeks of trumpet lessons when he was in middle school.

The actor has also appeared in the movie Parker in 2013 and Ray in 2004, according to IMDb.

Warning: The following video contains strong language.

Wendell Pierce grew up in the Pontchartrain Park neighborhood of New Orleans and attended Benjamin Franklin High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. In 2011, the actor reportedly opened the first in a chain of Sterling Express grocery stores in his hometown. Pierce’s mother was a teacher and his WWII veteran father was a maintenance engineer, TV.com reports.

Wendell Pierce previously had this to say about his time playing Bunk Moreland on The Wire.

“The Wire really is an American classic, and I think that’s something to be very proud of. If you see me on the street, feel free for the rest of my life to call me Bunk. The great thing about shooting The Wire in Baltimore was we were each other’s best company. We worked hard, long hours, but we partied hard, too, man. One bar made the mistake of having celebrity-bartender night. It happened one time, and one time only! That’s all I need to say!”

“What’s so different about Treme is that it’s trying really hard to capture culture, and show the impact culture has on people’s lives. Culture is the intersection of people and life itself. It’s how we deal with life, love, death, birth, disappointment… all of that is expressed in culture,” Wendell Pierce once said about the making of the hit HBO series. “And we’ve lost that understanding in America. We don’t understand the role of culture. The role of culture is that it’s the form through which we as a society reflect on who we are, where we’ve been, where we hope to be.”

What do you think about the growing tension among supporters of Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump?

[Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/File/AP Images]
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