Collision from Home: Hope Solo on Police Brutality: 'They Put a Gun to My Head'

- World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist Hope Solo speaks of her experience with police brutality

- Solo says she wanted to file a lawsuit against Kirkland police but was told "the police are protected"

- Solo joined WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, The Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood, and NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal at the 30,000-attendee online event Collision from Home

TORONTO, June 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Former US national team goalkeeper Hope Solo today spoke of her experience with police brutality, recounting an incident involving her husband, African-American and former footballer Jerramy Stevens. Solo made the remarks at the 30,000-attendee online conference Collision from Home, produced by the team behind Web Summit – the world's largest tech conference.

"Eight years ago I wanted to speak out. I asked my attorneys. I asked my manager. I said, 'I have to speak out against this. What I've seen is wrong.' And I was told, eight years ago, that nobody will listen; nobody wants to hear it; the police are protected.'

"I wanted a lawsuit against the Kirkland police. But I knew they were protected. What I saw happen (happened because) I was married to a black man. Two white guys got into a fight on our property, and police came in.

"They took the only black guy in the house, for no reason whatsoever. They had guns drawn. I think the problem is there's institutional racism within the police force, but there's also abuse of power," said Solo.

Solo went on to claim that the police involved submitted false reports about the incident.

"They made up the police reports – I've seen them lie. They wrote everything off as 'oversight'. They just said, 'Oh, oversight.' And they could literally just control the situation through their police reports. They could lie. They could cheat. They could do anything they wanted. They came into my house. They put a gun to my head," said Solo.

Watch a clip from the interview here.

About Hope Solo:

A World Cup and Olympic champion, Hope is widely regarded as the best goalkeeper in the world. A leading voice for women's rights and gender equality, Solo was one of five members of the US Women's National Team to file a wage discrimination claim.

About Collision:

Collision is known by CBC as the "TIFF for tech", while Inc. Magazine calls it the "fastest-growing tech conference in North America". Collision is set to move online for 2020 with Collision from Home. Collision will return to Toronto as a physical event for the second year from June 21-24, 2021 at the Enercare Centre.

About Web Summit:

Forbes says Web Summit is "the best tech conference on the planet"; Bloomberg calls it "Davos for geeks"; Politico, "the Olympics of tech"; The Guardian, "Glastonbury for geeks"; and, in the words of Inc. Magazine, "Web Summit is the largest technology conference in the world".

Whatever Web Summit is, it wouldn't be possible without an incredible team of over 200 employees based in Dublin, Lisbon, Toronto and Hong Kong, including world-class engineers, data scientists, designers, producers, marketers, salespeople, and more. They've disrupted an old industry by building incredible software and designing mind-blowing events, revolutionising how people and ideas come together to change the world.

Useful links:

Collision images: https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/

Collision speaker lineup: https://collisionconf.com/speakers

Collision schedule: https://collisionconf.com/schedule