Crusading Josh Brolin To Take On Tasers, Shreveport Cops in Next Role

W. star and Shreveport jail alumnus Josh Brolin spoke up for the first time on Wednesday about his bar brawl and subsequent detention by that city’s police, illustrating a Southern idyll where he was maced, co-star Jeffrey Wright was Tasered and his assistant was hauled to jail for “asking too many questions.” And while Brolin and his lawyers wait for the authorities to drop the charges that require him back in court later this fall, we’re finally learning exactly how not throw a wrap party in Louisiana — if you must throw one at all:

[N]one of us were drunk, we had just finished shooting three or four hours before. We were out…in the beginning, it was like [smacks hand] okay! It was time! We did it! We were so proud, what an accomplishment!…and then this fucking happens.

To me it was ridiculous. I have never seen…I have never ever, ever, ever, ever seen an escalation of paranoia and abuse like that…ever. And I know a lot of cops. Everybody knows I have a checkered past and I’ve been in situations that are kind of tough. I’ve never ever been treated like that by cops. Ever. [...]

I don’t know the specifics between Jeffrey [Wright] and the bartender, but he was asked to leave, and I know that was why the cops came, to say okay, it’s time to escort you out. Not because [Jeffrey] was yelling or screaming. He was just saying look, I’m here with my friends, I’m celebrating the end of our movie, and then they escorted him out, [and] we wanted to know why, and they didn’t want to tell us. They immediately resorted to violence. Which is what the police are there to try and stop and prevent. That didn’t happen. They were the violent ones.

Brolin also confirmed the existence of a cell-phone video of the incident: “It was us going … you can see it on the tape … us going ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.’ There was no fight-back at all.”

The fight-back apparently starts now, though, with Brolin retrenching in the press with references to other alleged police brutality in Shreveport — particularly with Tasers, which he claimed recently killed a 21-year-old detainee (although that incident actually occurred in Winnfield, La., about 60 miles southeast of Shreveport) and are ritually abused across the country. “I’m done being nice,” he told Wells. “What’s the worst, they’re gonna put me in jail a couple of months because I spoke out about [their] abuse?” Only if they do it the week of the Oscars, hot shot.

• What Happened Was [Hollywood Elsewhere]