You make many good points. But statistically black people are targeted more and harsher by police. They are also hurt more in the justice system compared to other races. When you are making seemingly impassioned argument it will fall on deaf ears sometimes if you don’t make those points also. That’s just the way it is. If you want people to understand where you are coming from you have to see their points as well. Otherwise you are just spinning your wheels.
They are just increased the Drama. Its Poetic if Russ comes back to defeat the Thunder. You know its not about basketball its all about that drum roll...........Drama
I think that has something to do with the business connections between China and the NBA, and how some NBA people reacted to Morey's Hong Kong tweet.
In the words of Martin Luther King "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" can you see the correlation between the two now?
Correlation? Sure. Equivalence? Absolutely not. For sure, but even if that wasn't the case, it's completely understandable why Hong Kong is not as big of a deal to NBA players (or Americans in general) as BLM/police brutality.
"Why do you care about this problem when this other problem exists?" is the most ridiculous fallacy pushed by people who want to silence this movement, and unbelievably hypocritical given how much nationalistic pride that side of the aisle has. Why try to solve any problem in the US? Things are so much worse in Venezuela! Let's fix that first!
And to build on this, again, the players (and their teams' owners) also just have FAR less influence over what happens in China and HK than they have over what happens here.
Obama got in the mix and told them to play NBA governors is a billionaires club. Money isnt everything but their influence could help...
SMB, After giving this some thought, I find myself more toward the middle of the issue than I was a few days ago. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and explaining your side without being abrasive or rude. Cordial discussion is a good thing. I was rude to @Reeko the other day out of frustration. I tried to apologize to no avail, but that's ok. Each are entitled to their own feelings and actions. The more I've heard about Blake, his history, his rap sheet, how he treats the mother of his kids, and why the police were called out in the first place...its hard for me to compassionate about it. While 7 shots in the back is horribly excessive, the police were naturally on edge knowing who they were dealing with. He admitted to them he had a weapon. He resisted arrest. He fought with the police. All of this after alledgedly physically assaulting and abusing the mother of his kids. That all being said, we (government officials, police unions, weapons manufacturers, self defense experts, etc.) must come up with a better way to incapacitate a perp, render them harmless to themselves and others around them, without a gun even being pulled. Tasers aren't the answer. There has the be better technology, and I would think the police should be more interested in discovering a new method than anyone. I come at this from a pro-cop family. My mentor growing up is a lifelong HPD and Hedwig Village officer. Was chief at HV. Some of the stories he's told me about are heartbreaking. Police are people too and they often end up in the worst possible positions having to restore order to tough situations making split-second decisions. Historically they are trained to maintain the safety of innocent bystanders through force with the alleged accused. That method of force needs to change. I agree and now he, being retired now, sees that it needs to change too. He has PTSD from his time as an officer from the lives he has taken. If cops are called to a nonviolent offense (like George Floyd), violence shouldn't even be an option for the officer. If he flees, let him flee and catch him later. He can't outrun a radio or a cellphone. Catch him later when tempers have calmed. Blake's situation is different but IMO there is no way that that many officers shouldn't have been able to subdue him without a gun. Inexcusable. Regarding the player's boycott, I've opened my mind to that and I'm hearing what they are trying to do. Their hearts are in the right place. My initial thoughts were they were being petulant about something they didn't know the facts about yet. I've texted with a few former players (both black and white) who have told me I'm not thinking of the entire picture, just this one occurence. I admit that to be the case and I was wrong. One player told me how he was accosted by police for driving home late after dinner on a game night. Clearly not a thug, wasn't breaking the law, but driving a nice Rover He gets out of the car at 6'10", cop doesn't recognize him, and he gets a million questions. All for no reason. He said he was polite but the cop was belligerent for no apparent reason. Had my friend decided to be belligerent too, who knows how it turns out. Another former player (white guy) said it happens more often than we ever hear about. Really gave me pause...I thought it was just stuff people hear about, not stuff that actually happens. Point of all of this is what I think needs to happen on a national scale. People need to calm down, think about things, and be open to change. That needs to happen on both sides of the issue. Thanks for helping me get to that point. I appreciate it.
What movement? Looting, killing or forcing people to agree with you? This is a hijacked movement at best . Those rich hypocrites are advocating reparations for slavery while profiting from other slaves. Just like Obama's wife complained she didn't feel safe living in the white house... This is today's America where hypocrites are brainwashing parasites.
If you want to focus on the protesters who are rioting and looting, then why don't you want to focus on the cops that are shooting innocent people and getting away with it? We are here talking about NBA players boycotting games, a powerful and peaceful protest for a just cause, and you bring up the strawman of looting. Also, the people doing any meaningful amount of killing during/around these protests are racist, white vigilantes and cops.
This isn't a matter of opinion... This is pretty much an objective fact as far as I can tell. It's possible I'm missing something, in which case I would honestly love for you to enlighten me. How do you think boycotting NBA games could be used help liberate Hong Kong? Because I can explain to you how I think it can help influence police violence and systemic racism. A huge chunk of the nation watches the NBA playoffs or is at least aware of them, and sports team owners are among the wealthiest people in the world, and therefore some of the most influential political contributors and lobbyists for our government. This seems pretty self explanatory to me. I know NBA basketball is reasonably big in China, but you think it's remotely big enough to make the Chinese gov reverse course on HK? Last time an NBA employee said anything about HK, China threatened the NBA, and the NBA caved, not the other way around. The league doesn't have much leverage there... What do you see that I don't?
2016 Homicide Statistics Black homicide victims (more than 50% of the U.S. total): 7,881 (FBI, Uniform Crime Report: 2016) Almost all killed by blacks. Of the 250 blacks killed by cops, almost all resisted with a weapon or resisted violently. Where's #BlackLivesMatter? https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u....016/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-1.xls https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u....016/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-2.xls
