*LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers blew out their playoff opponent, the Portland Trail Blazers, on “Mamba Day” Monday. But honoring the late Kobe Bryant with a win was not the only thing on his mind after the game. Another unarmed Black man was shot by the police.
“If you’re sitting here telling me that there was no way to subdue that gentleman, or detain him, or before the firing of guns, then you’re sitting here, you’re lying to not only me, you’re lying to every African American, every Black person in the community because we see it over and over and over,” James told reporters of the Kenosha, Wis. police officer who grabbed 29-year-old Jacob Blake by the t-shirt as he was getting into his car, and fired seven shots at point blank range into his back. He is currently hospitalized. According to a family attorney, his three children aged three, five and eight were in the back seat.
“If you watch the video, there (were) multiple moments where if they wanted to they could have tackled him, they could have grabbed him. They could have done that. Why does it always have to get to a point where we see the guns firing? …And his family is there. The kids are there. It’s in broad daylight … It’s just, quite frankly, it’s just f**ked up in our community.”
On Monday, protesters in Kenosha clashed for a second night with police in riot gear outside the city’s courthouse. An armored vehicle was also on the scene and police threw gas into the crowd of protesters.
“I know people get tired of hearing me say it but we are scared as Black people in America,” James continued. “Black men, Black women, Black kids, we are terrified. Because you don’t know, you have no idea. You have no idea how that cop that day left the house. You don’t know if he woke up on the good side of the bed, you don’t know if he woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”
Watch James’ entire post-game press conference below:
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