Oakland native, would-be dotcom entrepreneur and aging former rap star MC Hammer (né Stanley Burrell) was arrested in Dublin, California last Thursday night after a police officer approached his car and asked if he was on parole or probation. Hammer, being too legit to quit, the occasional Internet activist followed up the arrest with a Twitter rant about racial profiling on Saturday afternoon.

Officially, Hammer was arrested in the parking lot of the Hacienda Crossings shopping center on suspicion of obstructing and resisting an officer. According to a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's department, Hammer had been driving a vehicle with expired tags that was not registered to him.

"Hammer became very argumentative when questioned about the vehicle," Lt. Herb Walters told the L.A. Times, "He refused to exit the vehicle when the officer asked him to and continued to argue." He was booked into Santa Rita Jail and posted bail shortly after. Details from the police report are thin, so Hammer filled in the details from his perspective:

Hammer, being a devout Christian, didn't hurt 'em though. Instead, he used the incident as teachable moment:

The morning after his arrest, Hammer visited San Quentin State Prison for one of his regular trips to speak to inmates in the Last Mile program, which helps released prisoners join the real world with paid internships in Silicon Valley.

[InsideBayArea]
[LATimes]