Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, and in an effort to help with better training for police officers, the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition is working to help pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers has been openly pushing for equality and police reform, and he spoke out for it again on Tuesday.
“Today is the anniversary, it’s so strange that we call it an anniversary,” said Rivers. ”That sounds like something that you should celebrate. I don’t know if we should be celebrating the anniversary of the George Floyd incident and so this is about the George Floyd bill. Before I say something about it, this is not political. The George Floyd (bill) has nothing to do with if you’re Republican or Democrat.”
Rivers does not want the police abolished. He just wants officers to be better trained to deal with tough situations.
“I am the son of a police officer. I’m pro-police,” Rivers stated. “This has nothing to do with being anti-police. The George Floyd bill, in my opinion, is a bill that both sides want to pass. It’s a bill that one of the key points is about police training. We can train our police officers better. I think every police officer would want that. It’s a very positive thing. The fact that it takes six months to be a police officer, and it takes about a year and a half to get your barber’s license tells you that we need more training.”
Racial tensions have spiked in America over the past year. The Black, Asian and Jewish communities have been targets of a lot of hate. Rivers wants to see it all end.
“Equality and justice, everybody should want that,” he continued. “It shouldn’t matter what side of the aisle you’re on. That’s what I struggle with. When you see one person being treated poorly or one race being treated poorly. We’ve been going in cycles in our country lately. First, it was the Blacks, then we started with the Chinese, then we went to the Jewish people right now. Can we just treat everybody the right way? I mean, how hard is that. I think everybody should want that.”
Doc Rivers: “Can we just treat everybody the right way? I mean, how hard is that?”
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) May 25, 2021
Equality and justice are elements proponents say the George Floyd bill can offer. Rivers just wants to see everybody treated the same whether one is a police officer or not.
“There are bad cops out there, and it protects us against them,” he finished. “It’s just a really good bill. It’s a solid bill. It’s a fair bill, and I’m just hoping that every single person can call their senator. I’m a Democrat, I’ve called all my Republican friends, and I have a lot of them, to tell them that this is a bill that should be passed. It should be bipartisan. It should have nothing to do with what side of the aisle you’re on.”
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