LeBron James is quickly becoming more known for his left-leaning activism than he is for being a basketball player. The man who defended China as they attacked citizens of Hong Kong in the street is now suddenly going quiet when it comes to helping police find a murderer.
As my colleague, Nick Arama, reported on Wednesday night, two officers were shot in Louisville while they were sitting in their unit. The shooter approached the vehicle and fired on the deputies, wounding them.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva issued a challenge to LeBron James, saying he wanted the star to match and double the offered $175,000 reward for the shooter.
“This challenge is to LeBron James,” Villanueva said while on KABC radio. “I want you to match that and double that reward because I know you care about law enforcement. You expressed a very interesting statement on race relations and officer-involved shootings and the impact it has on the African American community.
“And I appreciate that,” continued Villanueva. “But likewise, we need to appreciate that respect for life goes across all professions.”
The NBA player who talks incessantly about his activism suddenly has “no comment.”
“I have zero comment on the sheriff,” James told the press.
According to ESPN, on Sunday, James was full of comments about the conduct of police officers, though.
“I’ve never in my 35 years ever condoned violence. Never have. But I also know what’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong,” he said, according to ESPN. “I grew up in the inner city in a black community in what we called the hood or the ghetto. … I’ve seen a lot of counts firsthand of a lot of black people being … racially profiled because of our color. And I’ve seen it throughout my whole life.”
“And I’m not saying that all cops are bad because,” he continued, “I actually — throughout high school and things of that nature, and I’m around them all the time, and they’re not all bad. But when you see the videos that’s going on and you can see all over the — not only my hometown but all over America — you continue to see the acts of violence toward my kind, I can’t do nothing but to speak about it and see the common denominator.”
“But not one time have I ever said, ‘Let’s act violent toward cops,’” James added. “I just said that what’s going on in our community is not OK, and we fear for that, and we fear for our lives. It’s something that we go on every single day as a black man and a black woman and a black kid, a black girl. We fear. We fear that moment when we’re pulled over.”
You would think that given Jame’s stance that not all cops are bad and that no one should condone the violence that he’d be willing to help find the shooter of the police officers, but when asked to put his money where his mouth is, he suddenly clams up.
It would appear that James is more than willing to run his mouth, but only for one end, making all his talk just window dressing for the fact that what he really wants is fairness in only one direction.
