In a new podcast interview with Blacc Sam, the older brother of Nipsey Hussle, with The Guardian, allegations surface that Nipsey Hussle and Sam were sanctioned targets of frequent LAPD harassment. Specifically, the pair were alleged to be a focus of the police force's now-defunct LASER (Los Angeles Strategic Extraction and Restoration) program, which tried to use predictive policing to zero in on likely offenders and criminal locations.
Safi (Blacc Sam's real name) accuses the LAPD's 77th Division of closely watching the slain L.A. rapper while canvassing his families and business associates, and putting specific pressure on the siblings' Marathon Clothing store. Sam went into detail about how the store itself was ironically launched due to similar police harassment in their lives.
Before opening Marathon in 2017, Blacc Sam says, "We were selling shirts, socks, clothing, and shoes across the street from the Louisiana Fried Chicken. They would come and arrest us, cuff us, and take all of our stuff. We would be looking up as all of that happened like ‘Damn, we just lost thousands of dollars of merchandise. Y’all not doing this to nobody else. We trying to be legit.’"
To which he claims the cops would reply: “‘Nah, y’all not legit until y’all pay taxes, like everyone else. You got to pay rent’."
But even opening a licensed haberdashery failed to quell the suspicions of law enforcement. Sam details the perpetual presence of officers coming in and out of and watching the store, including out-of-state cops that would enter as fans then find themselves questioned for intel.