On police and race, LeBron James becomes part of the problem
By Joe Concha, Opinion Contributor — 04/22/21 03:30 PM EDT Lebron James is professional basketball's greatest player since Michael Jordan. He's also a political activist, which is his right as an American citizen.
But as is the case with so many who have Twitter and other social media accounts, LeBron doesn’t have much of a filter. When he tweets something, particularly when he’s obviously emotional about news that just broke, his thumbs often seem a few exit ramps ahead of his brain. And this can lead to some reckless rhetoric that has a real impact, considering that he has nearly 50 million followers, about equal to the populations of New York, Florida and Michigan combined.
Exhibit A on the reckless-rhetoric front came after LeBron weighed in on the police shooting of a Black teenage girl in Columbus, Ohio, who – according to police bodycam footage – was attempting to stab another teenage girl with a knife big enough to be visible on the footage.
"These grown girls over here trying to fight us, trying to stab us," a 911 caller tells a dispatcher. An officer is rushed to the scene wearing a bodycam, which shows him approaching a group of people standing and shouting on a driveway. The officer asks, "What's going on?"
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https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/549783-on-police-and-race-lebron-james-becomes-part-of-the-problem
