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.
Well there’s a shocker…the Benevolent Order of Citizen-Beaters supports faux-outrage by citizen-beaters over incidents of citizen-beating.
Can the cops be disciplined by the force for what they did (or did not do–in this case, the crowd control they were hired for) while on a private detail? I hope so.
Before we even get to the political implications of this conduct, the officers broke the promise they made to do the job. Politics or personal feelings should not play a part in living up to the deal they made when they took the assignment.
The police are scared. The usage of war like equipment reveals their fear. Over reacting by shooting Innocent people is sign of their fear. The way things are with anybody and everybody able to get guns it is reason to be afraid. Even I’m afraid and I live in a very safe place. That is why we need gun control and they think they need guns.
“Freedom of speech is the right to communicate one’s opinions and ideas without fear of government retaliation or censorship. The term freedom of expression
is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking,
receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium
used.”
The uniforms had a Dallas Police Department symbol on the back, so it isn’t like they were only honoring BLM and the recent deaths. As usual, a missed opportunity. Too bad the officers didn’t approach the team and have a dialog, maybe everyone would have learned something.