Tag: jacob blake

Boston’s Jaylen Brown speaks on the shooting of Jacob Blake

Boston Celtics star shooting guard Jaylen Brown shared his thoughts on the shooting of Jacob Blake in his first media appearance since the incident happened this Sunday.

Speaking to the media for he first time since the news of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot in the back seven times this past Sunday, swept the nation, Boston Celtics star shooting guard Jaylen Brown appeared understandably somber.

“I would like to continue to demand justice for Breonna Taylor,” began Brown. “I’d also like to encourage guys to get out and vote, and I’d also like to thank the NBA and the Celtics for allowing us to kneel and participate [in] that protest for the national anthem every single night.”

In a moment when we could — should — be able to focus on the Celtics’ second-round matchup with the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors, instead we were talking about police violence.

Again.

About how the media, almost without exception, unreflexively dredges up the past of every person beaten, choked, or shot to death or nearly so — as if previous mistakes justify the loss of one’s constitutional rights or even their life.

“‘Well, he possibly had a weapon;’ This framework is not unfamiliar to people of color and African Americans,” explained Brown, “nor does it constitute … being shot seven times.

“African Americans and people of color have a history with the police,” he added.

“It comes with the existence of systemic oppression, lack of education, economic opportunity housing, etc. Most people of color, [and] most minority communities have issues with the police. The question is that I would like to ask his view does America think that Black people or people of color are uncivilized, savages and naturally unjust, or are we products of the environments that we participate in?”

“That’s the question I would like to ask America, and America has proven its answer over and over and over again,” emphasized the Georgia native. “Are we not human beings? Is Jacob Blake not a human being?”

Sighing with frustration, Brown struggled to articulate his words without emotion cracking his voice.

“I don’t care if he did something 10 years ago. 10 days ago or 10 minutes ago; if he served his sentence and he was released back into society, he … still deserves to be treated like a human, and [did] not deserve to shot in the back seven times with the intent to kill. His kids will never unsee that, his family will never unsee that, and I will never unsee that.”

“People post my jersey all the time, No. 7; and every time I look at my jersey now, what I see is a black man being shot seven times while America sees this background,” Brown said.

“It’s easier to see that, than see the truth.”

There isn’t much to add to the Cal-Berkeley product’s words. We’d like to believe they were a gross exaggeration.

We’d like to believe this was an isolated incident, that the officers involved were an aberration, and that the general tendency to dig up every past wrong a man has ever made when police are filmed using excessive force was unusual.

But the facts are not on that side, and something has to change.

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Fred VanVleet on Jacob Blake shooting: ‘Nothing’s really changing’

It’s exhausting.

Toronto Raptors’ guard Fred VanVleet didn’t want to talk about basketball, so he didn’t take a single basketball question at the Raptors’ media availability session on Tuesday.

Instead, he wanted to talk about the shooting of Jacob Blake — an unarmed Black man who was shot eight times in the back by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin after de-escalating a fight.

VanVleet was asked how he was feeling, and what he described was total exhaustion. There was also a feeling of total disappointment.

The NBA has done a number of things to bring awareness to the Black Lives Matter movement. The players are wearing social justice messages on their jerseys. They’re also wearing BLM warm-up gear. The court even has a BLM logo on it.

Yet, despite all of that, another unarmed Black person was shot by police officers and is now paralyzed from the waist down.

VanVleet just wants it to stop.

“I was pretty excited, and then we all had to watch Jacob Blake get shot yesterday. So that kind of changes the tone of things and puts things in perspective. So that’s really kind of all that’s been on my mind. And coming down here, making a choice to play, was supposed to not be in vain. But it’s just starting to feel like everything we’re doing is just going through the motions and nothing’s really changing and here we are again with another unfortunate incident.” 

Being Black in America is totally exhausting. One minute, you can be having an incredible day. Everything could be going just the way you planned it.

And then, the next minute, you could be watching someone with the same skin tone as you being shot on camera by people who are sworn to protect.

That’s where VanVleet is. He and other NBA players are doing work. They are trying to solve problems. They’re talking about the issues. They’re giving people access to vote. They’ve broadcasting the right messages.

But the reality is that none of those things alone were going to solve the problems with racial inequality that we have in this country. And even if they did, it was never going to happen over the course of a few months.

These problems are centuries in the making and have taken root systematically. It’s going to take a lot more to pull those roots up.

Talking, alone, won’t stop it. Voting, alone, won’t stop it. It all takes time. And that’s truly the most exhausting part of it all.

Lions cancel Tuesday’s practice, come together to promote social justice in wake of Jacob Blake shooting

The Detroit Lions have canceled Tuesday’s practice, come together to promote social justice in wake of Jacob Blake shooting.

Detroit Lions’ practice was supposed to begin at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday but the media was told practice would be delayed after player meetings were running long. Practice was delayed again, then delayed again, and finally canceled.

The Lions have made social justice a priority this offseason, and after the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin over the weekend, the Lions’ players felt compelled to spend the day having raw conversations about it.

At 1:30 in the afternoon, Lions’ players came out to address the media as a group, standing together with a whiteboard message that read, “The World Can’t Go On!” and “We Won’t Be Silent!!”.

Duron Harmon, Trey Flowers, and Taylor Decker addressed the media outside the Lions facility in Allen Park.

Team leaders Matthew Stafford, Trey Flowers, Duron Harmon, Taylor Decker, and coach Matt Patricia met virtually with the media to further discuss this issue, while other players and coaches took to social media after the demonstration to express their feelings:

Lions cancel practice to speak out as a team on police shooting of Jacob Blake

For the second time in the last few months, the Detroit Lions have altered their plans to speak out against police violence.

On Monday, several NFL players and coaches spoke out about the Kenosha, Wisconsin shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, who was shot multiple times in the back by police after he tried to break up a fight. The Green Bay Packers also released a team statement, and as it turns out, they’re not the only NFC North team that felt compelled to address the shooting as a group.

The Detroit Lions cancelled their Tuesday practice and instead came out to address the media at the team’s facility.

“We’ve been able to have some real conversations as a team… Just to hear the pain, the fear that the people I love are going through, it’s not OK,” said offensive tackle Taylor Decker, per The Athletic’s Chris Burke.

“The Detroit Lions organization is going to take a stand that what happened to Jacob Blake is not okay,” Harmon continued, per Petry. “We are going to speak out on it until we create change. We’ll do everything we can to win football games, but we’ll also do everything we can to create change.”

“Been a lot of days in my life I’ve been proud to be a Detroit Lion,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said, “but probably never more of an offseason or of a day than today that I’ve been proud to be a part of this team.”

This is not the first time in recent days the Lions have addressed police violence against Black men. After George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25, the team released this statement:

“Honestly, I was just disgusted, angry, sad, depressed,” Lions head coach Matt Patricia told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer about Floyd’s death. “The range of emotion, you watch the video, someone being murdered and you’re like … I didn’t even know how to process it. And the range of emotion I know I felt in watching that was only one-tenth of a fraction of a minute percent of what my players must’ve been feeling. So when I got up on Friday, I didn’t sleep much. I’d been grinding on stuff all night, it was just, ‘This isn’t right.’”

So, instead of going through with any particular phase of training camp, the Lions organized a forum in which players and staff could let their feelings be known.

“I think for us, what we hope, and how we gotta hold each other accountable, is to make sure that we are continuing the conversation, and we are setting up time to do that, and we’re trying to come up with ideas to follow through outside our building to have the conversation,” Patricia concluded back then. “It’s amazing when you get a group of men together, and you start to listen, and you get to the point where you feel comfortable talking through it.

“And listening to some thoughts and ideas, I think that’s when you gotta make sure you follow through. You gotta try. And they’re not all gonna work. But if a couple of them work, and you make change, you connect. … We gotta try, and we gotta stick with it and we gotta persevere through that. And we talk a lot about leadership and the team driving that leadership. And I think that’s important for us to make sure that it’s an everyday thing.”

Kudos to the Lions for making it an “everyday thing” when it needs to be, as tragic and unfortunate as the necessity may be.

Reacting to Jacob Blake shooting, LeBron says Black people feel ‘hunted’

LeBron James went off on a variety of subjects related to police brutality during his postgame availability on Monday.

Last night was an emotional night for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, beyond the fact that it was a night in which they honored the memory of Kobe Bryant with a dominating win to take a 3-1 series lead into Wednesday’s Game 4. Yesterday’s game also took place with the backdrop of another Black man being shot by police, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

LeBron was excellent in last night’s win, but after the game, he turned the focus to Blake and the way Black people are treated by law enforcement. He discussed how Black people feel ‘hunted’ by law enforcement and he also shared his own stories as a youth running from the cops out of fear, even when he did nothing wrong.

James has been vocal throughout the NBA restart, both behind the microphone and on social media, when it comes to issues of police brutality as well as issues of voter suppression, which is he is helping combat with a new non-profit, More Than A Vote.

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Chris Paul reacts to Jacob Blake shooting with vow to ‘keep fighting’

Immediately after Game 4, surprisingly, the Thunder’s big win was the last thing on the mind of Chris Paul.

Chris Paul hadn’t wiped the sweat from his brow after the Thunder took Game 4 from the Houston Rockets, but it didn’t matter.

The President of the NBPA needed to sound off on the shooting of Jacob Blake.

On Sunday, a video posted online showed police officers firing several shots at close range into a Black man’s back. The incident occurred in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with the shooting victim learned to be the 29-year-old.

Protests ensued shortly thereafter, with local authorities declaring an emergency and implementing curfews.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, LeBron James took to Twitter to express his outrage, followed shortly thereafter by the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.

As the leader of the NBA Players Association, Paul was instrumental not only in the league successfully resuming play within its “bubble” in Central Florida, but also in ensuring that the fight for social justice that has become a rallying cry for many of his constituents would be strengthened by the players’ participation.

So it made perfect sense that in his walk-off interview with TNT’s Stephanie Ready, the victory was the furthest thing from the mind of Paul.

“The series is tied now. What did you find at the end of this game that helped you guys pull away?” Ready asked Paul, who immediately dismissed the question and deflected.

“I don’t know, that’s all good and well, I just want to send my prayers out to Jacob Blake and their family,” Paul said.

“The things that we decided to come down here to play for and we said we’re gonna speak on, the social injustice and the things that continue to happen to our people — it’s not right. It’s not right,” he said before pivoting to other issues.

“The win is good, but voting is real. I’m gonna challenge all my NBA guys, other sports guys, let’s try to get our entire teams registered to vote. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the country. Sports, it’s cool, it’s good and well, it’s how we take care of our families, but those are the real issues we gotta start addressing.”

Paul echoed those sentiments when he met with reporters after the contest. According to the point guard, Thunder head coach Billy Donovan addressed the Blake shooting with his players and encouraged them to not lose sight of the fact that there are two fights — one on the court, and one off.

“Our team this morning, during walkthrough, coach addressed that, addressed that situation,” Paul said.

“He said with all these games going on, we can get shortsighted and lose sight of what’s happening, so it’s something that we discussed, we gotta continue to shed light on it and it’s not right. It’s not right, in my postgame interview I sent prayers out to that family and we gotta do something about this because these videos that keep showing up, and keep happening, it’s gotta stop.”

Paul isn’t the only player who has let his voice be heard. On Sunday, LeBron James expressed his outrage on Twitter.

“And y’all wonder why we say what we say about the Police!! Someone please tell me WTF is this???!!! Exactly another black man being targeted. This [expletive] is so wrong and so sad!! Feel so sorry for him, his family and OUR PEOPLE!! We want JUSTICE,” James tweeted.

Not even a dramatic contest and huge win took Paul’s mind away from Blake and his family.

“We’re gonna keep talking about it and fighting and making sure that people are held accountable,” he said.

At least to this point, Paul has done his part.

LeBron James reacts to police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James reacted with disgust and horror at Wisconsin police shooting an unarmed Black man seven times.

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James could not stay silent as he saw yet another unarmed Black citizen shot by police. James reacted to the video that has emerged from the police shooting unarmed Jacob Blake in the back seven times, in Wisconsin over the weekend. James went on to illustrate why the moment shows the reasons why the NBA has been so vocal in continuing the conversation about police brutality towards Black people, which often goes unpunished. James expressed his anger about how ‘wrong and sad,’ the situation is and ended his statement by demanding justice.

James shared the video, which is very graphic and could be triggering.

The conversation about police brutality, as well as actions including donations from the NBA and its many teams, as well as social justice messaging both on uniforms and on the court, have been major components of the NBA restart. The Milwaukee Bucks, who play in the state where Blake was shot, also released a statement on Monday.

The Lakers continue their first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers later this evening.

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NFL players, coaches speak out about police shooting of Jacob Blake

Multiple NFL players have spoken out about the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

When George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25, it was a tragedy that could have easily been avoided. It was also a tripwire to a nationwide increase in protests and awareness of police brutality and racial inequity that has been shown throughout the NFL, as well. No longer did the league set its parameters at banning pre-game protests and blacklisting players who sent out messages that weren’t NFL-approved — now, the league seemed to understand that the tide was so formidable, even the league couldn’t control it.

So on Sunday, when Jacob Blake, another black man, was shot multiple times in the back by Kenosha, Wisconsin police while his children watched from his car, the reaction from the NFL world was swift.

New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara called the shooting “attempted murder,” (at the time of this article’s publication, Blake is reported to have survived) and included a link to the video of the shooting, which we will warn you is not for the faint of heart.

Receiver Michael Thomas, Kamara’s teammate, had this simple message.

Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan was right there with his teammates.

This from Chiefs defensive back Tyrann Mathieu:

And this from Aaron Rodgers, who has a bit of a knowledge background based on his years in the state of Wisconsin:

And Matt LaFleur, Rodgers’ head coach, had a meeting with his team’s leadership council to talk about the shooting.

Texans receiver Kenny Stills, who has been socially and politically active throughout his NFL career, was emotional and thoughtful when asked about it.

Per the Kenosha News, Blake is in serious condition at a Milwaukee area hospital. From the report:

At least a half dozen witnesses said that the man had tried to break up a fight between the two women outside a home at 2805 40th St. and that police had attempted to use a Taser on the man prior to the shooting. Then, they heard at least seven gunshots ring out.

Witnesses said he was unarmed and shot in the back.

A video that has since gone viral on social media shows the man walking away from officers and going around the vehicle to get inside. While the man is entering the vehicle the video shows an officer firing a gun at the man inside the vehicle. A woman in the video is screaming as he is being shot.

It was not immediately known whether the man had a weapon.

Per multiple reports, the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave.