#9: Martin Lawrence
Lawrence has cashed in on playing a police officer more times than probably anyone else on this list, but he’s best known for playing Miami PD Detective Marcus Burnett in the Bad Boys franchise opposite Will Smith. In his comedy special Runteldat, Lawrence famously joked about how white people can get away with everything from cursing out police officers on a traffic stop to speeding while black Americans have typically been the most docile and compliant of the races in a post-Rodney King world. Why? “…Cause you never know if that’s going to be us”. It is important to note, however, that Lawrence survived an encounter with the LAPD in 1996 in which he ran through the streets armed with a handgun shouting “Fight the establishment!” at vehicles in a likely drug induced stupor. It appears that we all – no matter what race – get lucky from time to time.
