Four Minneapolis police officers earned praise from their local union for walking off their posts providing security at a Minnesota Lynx game over players’ condemnation of racial profiling, the Star Tribune reported Monday.
Minneapolis Police Federation Lt. Bob Kroll said he approved of the four off-duty officers’ decision to quit over the players’ comments and Black Lives Matter warm-up jerseys.
“I commend them for it,” he told the Star Tribune.
The three-time WNBA champions held a press conference before Saturday’s game at Target Center denouncing last week’s fatal police shootings of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They also spoke out against the “senseless ambush” of Dallas police officers at a Black Lives Matter rally on Thursday that left five officers dead and nine wounded.
Players wore black T-shirts that read “Change starts with us, justice and accountability.” On the back, the shirts were emblazoned with “Black Lives Matter,” Sterling and Castile’s names, and a Dallas Police Department symbol.
Lynx forward Rebekkah Brunson said the players were “wearing shirts to honor and mourn the loss of precious American citizens and to plead change for all of us,” according to the Star Tribune.
Though the players also lamented the loss of law enforcement officers, the police union head told the newspaper that the unnamed officers who quit removed themselves from a list of cops working future games.
Police have criticized other entertainers for supporting Black Lives Matter. NBA icon LeBron James and other high-profile players came under fire for wearing “I can’t breathe” jerseys on the court in memory of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man killed in a police chokehold. Police unions across the country also threatened to boycott Beyoncé’s “Formation” tour over the singer’s allusions to police violence and the Black Panthers.
