TMZ.com Home

NBA star J.R. Smith beat the living daylights out of a man who allegedly smashed his car window during the wild protests in L.A. ... and TMZ Sports has the video.

You can see ... the 6'6", 225-pounder unleashed a barrage of violent kicks on the man -- landing several times in the head.

When the guy finally stands up on his feet, Smith delivered a final punishing overhand right to the guy's dome.

Finally, some of J.R.'s friends step in and the other guy scurries off in a hurry.

Smith explained the attack in an emotionally charged video -- saying, "One of these motherfu**king white boys didn't know where he was going and broke my f**king window in my truck."

"Broke my sh*t."

Smith says his truck was parked in a residential area -- away from the stores that were being looted.

We're told the incident took place around the Fairfax area -- near the famous Flight Club sneaker shop, which had just been looted.

"I chased him down and whooped his ass," Smith said.

Smith says the incident was NOT fueled by race or hatred -- it was simply revenge for messing with his truck.

AKA, Street Justice.

A black couple was removed from their vehicle with incredibly excessive force by police officers in Atlanta -- and, supposedly, it's all because they were out past curfew.

The viral video was captured live on the air Saturday night by CBS46 -- the local ATL affiliate that was reporting on the protests and riots going down Saturday night. During the broadcast, one of the reporters and cameramen began filming a wild encounter on the streets ... showing a young couple being yanked from their vehicle by riot gear cops.

It's unclear what exactly led up to the altercation, but CBS46's news banner during the segment read "POLICE BEGIN ENFORCING 9PM CURFEW." That has led many to speculate that these two individuals were simply targeted for being out of their homes when 9 o'clock rolled around ... which, if true, is absolutely insane.

More troubling than that, though, is how the officers dealt with them -- opening their door, demanding they exit ... and then resorting to tasering both of them and pulling them out when the man and woman refused. They even reportedly broke the windows/slashed tires.

Both the man and woman were detained and cuffed on the ground, and then led away. It's unclear if they were ultimately arrested and booked for anything.

CBS46 acknowledges in their own on-the-scene reporting that they do not know why so many cops were honed in on this one vehicle -- there doesn't appear to be others around it at the time this was filmed -- but in any case, APD is being heavily scrutinized as a result.

The department has not addressed this specific situation -- we've also reached out to them about it, but haven't heard back. The only thing they've said online is that they're working on releasing the names and charges of everyone they arrested over the last 48 hours.

The top dog of the LAPD made progress with protesters in Los Angeles this weekend, getting them to calm down and retreat ... after he admitted George Floyd had been murdered.

Here's Chief of Police Michel Moore talking to protesters in the City of Angels this weekend, explaining his and his officers' intentions -- telling the crowd the cops weren't there to harm or arrest anyone ... just to deal with a fire that was raging in the background.

He finally gets everyone's attention when one of the more vocal protesters tells everyone behind him that Moore had admitted to him that, in his opinion, George was in fact murdered by Derek Chauvin -- which got cheers of approval from just about everyone there.

Moore then comes to a mutual understanding with the protesters ... no bottles or rocks should be thrown, and it's all good. It's pretty remarkable, especially coming from THE face of the department. You would hope his approach to dealing with protesters will trickle down the ranks.

It's also becoming more and more clear that a lot of cops out there are hearing the frustrations of the protesters and adjusting their behavior in handling them accordingly. We saw one officer yank another officer's knee off a guy's neck. Now, take a look at this.

Unclear where this video was shot, but it appears to show a cop putting his knee UNDER a protester's head while they're being detained -- seemingly to provide support/comfort.

Two white protesters got called out by a black protester for tagging a Starbucks with graffiti repping the Black Lives Matter movement ... and the bizarre encounter was caught on video.

Check it out ... you see two white women decked out in all black and wearing face masks/coverings spraying 'BLM' along the side of a Starbucks in L.A., as well as other messaging. One African-American woman who's also protesting gets in their faces and questions what they're doing ... and why. Watch what happens when she confronts them.

The white gals were NOT down to stick around for answers, as they mumbled incoherent responses and abruptly scrammed as soon as they realized they were getting attention. The black protester tells them to stop, because the public will blame the peaceful protesters -- the ones of color, specifically -- for the defacement and destruction of property.

She tells them that nobody in the actual 'BLM' movement told them to tag the place, and that the message wasn't theirs to spread unlawfully. It's a pretty revealing interaction here.

Of course, it also lends credence to what some people have been saying on the ground at a lot of these demonstrations all over the U.S. -- that, allegedly, there are bad actors infiltrating these protests (which, by and large, start out peacefully) and turn them chaotic.

Here's what one of the 3 cops should have done when George Floyd was losing his life.

It happened Saturday night in Seattle when a cop put his knee on a protester's neck, eerily similar to the way Derek Chauvin ended George's life. You see another cop forcibly remove the knee of his colleague ... such a simple act that is also a life-saving act.

This has been a big issue in policing ... when a bad cop crosses the line, can other officers who are present get the rogue cop back in line without suffering consequences back at the station?

This is an example of cops checking cops, and it may be one of the most graphic and useful lessons from this whole miserable ordeal ... that police don't have to wait for review boards and prosecutors to tell them how they should have acted ... they can do it before it becomes a tragedy.

Protests decrying the killing of George Floyd have been in full swing here in the States for days now -- but over the weekend, a bunch of celebs got in on the action ... as did international partakers who seem just as outraged.

Several stars were spotted out in L.A. over the weekend taking part in the protests -- many of which started out peacefully, but eventually turned destructive -- including folks like Nick Cannon, Halsey, Machine Gun Kelly, Yungblud, Mod Sun, Tinashe, Ariana Grande, Paris Jackson, Madison Beer, Courtney Easton, Ross Lynch, Tyler the Creator, Emily Ratajkowski, Kendrick Simpson, Jeremy Meeks, Lauren Jauregi, Jaz Sinclair and more.

Elsewhere were even more famous faces, like J. Cole and Meek Mill. Tons of celebrities also spoke out online, like Billie Eilish who bashed anyone who backed "All Lives Matter."

That was just here in our own backyard -- but the demonstrations for George did NOT end at our borders along the Pacific or Atlantic oceans ... a handful of other countries held their own protests from afar. Places like Berlin, London, Tokyo, Toronto and others featured their own BLM protests ... with many citizens facing off with their own police forces.

Jake Paul was in the middle of a mall that was being looted Saturday night, and he's taking lots of heat for it.

The YouTube star was at Fashion Square in Scottsdale, Arizona, and you can see in the video, the looters are stealing tennis shoes and pretty much everything that isn't nailed down.

You don't see Paul steal anything, but he's right there as everyone around him destroys shops and steals what's inside.

One of the most ridiculous comments on social media ... Jake is a millionaire, so he doesn't need to loot. That logic justifies looting for some, and that's just plain wrong.

Van Jones said it best ... most people -- regardless of color -- condemn the violence. To make things better, the folks who constantly turned a deaf ear to police brutality need to speak out as loudly, and maybe we can make some progress.

It was a remarkable sight ... a cop puts down his baton and helmet and joins protesters in solidarity.

It went down Saturday in Michigan's Flint Township, where Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson engaged protesters in the wake of George Floyd's brutal killing at the hands of rogue cops.

Swanson had a real conversation with some folks in the crowd, saying, "This is the way it's supposed to be ... police working with the community. When we see injustice, we call it out on the police side and on the community side. All we had to do was talk to them, and now we're walking with them."

He added, "The cops in this community, we condemn what happened. That guy [Chauvin] is not one of us."

And, with that ... the Sheriff and some of his deputies joined the crowd assembled in a Target and began marching. They were united for more than 2 hours, and the march ended at Flint's police station, where things could have otherwise gotten out of hand. They were met by a line of deputies decked out in riot gear. The protesters and cops began talking, and it all ended with fist bumps and hugs.

It was awesome and picture-perfect, as the 2 U.S. astronauts hitched their space capsule onto the International Space Station.

It went down Sunday AM Earth time ... 19 hours after the Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

It's the first time in the history of U.S. space exploration that astronauts were hurled into parts unknown by a rocket manufactured by a private company -- in this case, Elon Musk's SpaceX.

A cam from the Space Station captured the docking procedure ... check out the red, white and green lights that signify the progress as the Dragon capsule bellies up to its host.

The 2 astronauts -- Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley -- took over the controls during part of the maneuver. The actual docking was computer-driven.

The docking follows a picture-perfect launch Saturday afternoon. The docking indicated that the first portion of the test flight with crew aboard was successful.

The trip will be considered a complete success once the astronauts return to Earth in the near future, opening the way for more travel to the space station and orbit by astronauts and perhaps space tourists in the years to come.

It's a clever and memorable way to get your right of passage during a pandemic ... diplomas delivered to grads on jet skis!!!

It went down Saturday in Florida. Graduating seniors hopped on their jet skis and got their prized certificates.

To show they are people of responsibility, the seniors from the Somerset Island Prep school wore life jackets underneath their gowns.

The principal was safely planted on a nearby boat, bestowing the diplomas on graduates -- with the help of a pole -- as they coasted by.

The principal said, “This final ceremony for our seniors represents the same theme that has played out throughout the entirety of their time at Island Prep,” adding, “That no barrier is too large to overcome and that through creativity and hard work we can overcome any challenge.”

A small business owner was brutally beaten by looters because he was allegedly defending his store with a machete.

It happened Saturday night in Dallas ... as looters descended on the man's store, who was using a sword, allegedly trying to defend himself and his business.

The disturbing video shows rioters viciously beat him, rendering him bloody and unconscious. He was beaten with skateboards, rocks and fists, and suffered multiple gashes all over his body. You even hear someone yell, "Turn him over!"

The man was taken to a hospital by ambulance where he's currently in stable condition.

Check out this shocking moment, when an NYPD officer runs up to a man with his hands up in the air, yanks his mask down and then pepper sprays him.

It happened Saturday during a protest in the streets of New York City.

The person who posted the video on Twitter, wrote, "I am heartbroken and disgusted to see one of my family members a young black man w/his hands up peacefully protesting and an NYPD officer pulls down his mask and pepper sprays him."

The man's mother posted this on follow-up on Twitter, saying both of her sons were pepper sprayed, and all they were doing were protesting the brutal killing of George Floyd.

It looks like a segment from the TV show "Supermarket Sweep" ... as scores of looters tear through a store on a famous Beverly Hills street.

It's a ground view of looting where you can really see what these folks are doing inside the store, and it's all about stealing merchandise.

Looters ignored the 8 PM curfew Saturday night as they amped up what was going on during daylight hours. Check out the video of looters pilfering all they could carry at the Alexander McQueen store on Rodeo Drive.

They also set fires to multiple businesses in L.A., especially in the Fairfax District and Melrose Ave., trashing store after store. Many of the stores were mom and pop, so the likelihood that they can stay in business with the vandalism combined with the impact of the coronavirus ranges from slim to none.

Some of the other stores that were looted ... Apple Store and Nordstrom.

Faith Evans has found herself in some legal trouble ... 'cause we've learned the singer was arrested after allegedly attacking Stevie J.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Faith was arrested earlier this week at around 1 AM after cops got called to their L.A.-area home. We're told Faith and Stevie got into a heated argument, and at some point, it turned violent.

Our sources say when cops showed up they noticed visible marks and scratches on Stevie's face. It's unclear what triggered the argument. But, in any event ... cops arrested Faith and booked her for felony domestic violence. Faith bonded out later that day.

The arrest comes nearly a year after the couple desperately tried to downplay rumors their marriage was in trouble. As we first reported ... there was palpable tension after our camera guy got the couple leaving the Essence Festival in New Orleans.

Our guy asked them if there's trouble in paradise after Faith and Stevie unfollowed each other on social media ... not to mention Stevie's cryptic string of tweets from, "Drunk people always speak their truth," and "Ones insecurities can damage them" to "All that glitters ain't gold" and "Cherish what you love just know nothing will last forever."

Baker Mayfield threw it all the way back to 2015 at a wedding last week... busting a move in a dance circle just like when he was a young QB hittin' the Whip at Oklahoma!!!

TMZ Sports has learned ... Baker attended his cousin's wedding in Simpsonville, S.C. on May 25 -- and he couldn't help but cut a rug when the spotlight was on the dance floor.

Check out video we obtained from the evening ... Mayfield KILLED it -- dancing along to YeahThatDJ's set at the lively function.

There was some gyrating, some fancy footwork and even a little floss. Good times!

If this all looks familiar ... it's 'cause it is -- remember, back in 2015, the nation was first enthralled by Mayfield's moves in a viral video of him in a Sooner dance circle.

Rick Ross needs to hustle over to a COVID-19 testing center if he wants to visit his kids ... so claims his alleged baby mama.

Briana Singleton filed legal docs in Fayette County, Georgia requesting an emergency hearing to have the rapper -- real name William Leonard Roberts II -- take a COVID-19 test. She wants to know he tested negative before he can visit their 2 infant children ... this according to docs obtained by TMZ.

Singleton claims, even though Ross hasn't been cooperative on the DNA testing, the rapper has made efforts to care for them -- like buying her a Mercedes SUV after their first child was born -- before they broke up around New Years.

Singleton claims RR has stonewalled it on the issue of paternity several times, but claims it hasn't stopped him from depositing money into her bank account to care for the kids. What's more ... she claims she's also pregnant with his third child, due in September.

As for visiting the kids ... Singleton claims the rapper hasn't seen them in nearly 6 months, but earlier this month he expressed interest. Singleton says she's down ... but still maintains Rick hasn't been responsibly quarantining during the pandemic.

She points to videos he's posted on social media, showing him traveling outside of Georgia, and also claims she has concerns about Ross' "constant use of marijuana." It's plain and simple ... she's open to parenting time for Ross but wants the court to ensure “certain health, safety, and precautionary provisions” are in place to protect the children.