Onscreen, J.D. Williams shot and killed a 16-year-old whose loyalty to a local drug ring was suspect. In real life, he’s an actor from New Jersey who commutes to New York for auditions, and like many other young black men in the city, is often stopped and frisked by police. In the case of the very recognizable actor, however, cops often approach him because they think they recognize him from a previous arrest.

Williams, who played Barksdale soldier Preston “Bodie” Broadus on HBO’s The Wire from 2002 to 2008, held a Trayvon Martin poster at a silent march against NYC’s stop-and-frisk policy on Sunday.

In an interview with Capital New York, he said,

You see, it’s a double-edged sword because I might get recognized, but they’re not sure where they know me from. So a lot of times, an officer might think that he’s arrested me before, but usually by the time that they walk up on me, it comes to them. They’re like, “Oh, I thought …” So, it kind of gets me noticed because they’re not sure, and … a little time goes by and they finally realize who I am.

Black men, we get judged just from appearance. That’s why we have pictures of Trayvon, Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo. … There’s a very real possibility that I will always be stopped and frisked. I’m from New Jersey and we don’t necessarily have this kind of policy, but we have similar racial profiling practices so, you know, a stand up here is a stand for anywhere else.

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