LOS ANGELES, CA- Leaders within the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) sent an internal email to show support for the Lakers, a Los Angeles basketball team in the NBA finals.
Now, officers within the LAPD are coming forward to express their disdain toward the team and their anti-law enforcement sentiment.
Many industries have been affected by the continued rioting and social unrest across the US, and the professional sports industry is no exception. Sports leagues and players are more politicized than ever.
This is especially true for the Lakers, who have condemned law enforcement multiple times. Two of the team’s star players have used social media to show their anger.
LeBron James posted about Jacob Blake, an armed criminal who was shot by police claiming he “feels so sorry” for Blake:
“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 shit is so wrong and so sad!! Feel so sorry for him, his family and OUR PEOPLE!! We want JUSTICE”
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 shit is so wrong and so sad!! Feel so sorry for him, his family and OUR PEOPLE!! We want JUSTICE https://t.co/cJxOj1EZ3H
— LeBron James (@KingJames) August 24, 2020
One of James’ teammates, Kyle Kuzma, also took to Twitter to claim that law enforcement officers are able to get away with breaking the law. Kuzma then argued that police reform is needed.
Police can break the law and have not be held accountable for it. #SB731 prohibits this! As a resident of California I say we need this passed for moderate police reform!
— kuz (@kylekuzma) August 31, 2020
The statements made by individual players may not reflect the opinion of the team, but the Lakers have made aversion to police clear.
A post on the team’s official Twitter page shows multiple players wearing hats with the words “Make America Arrest the Cops Who Killed Breonna Taylor.”
The hat is a replica of the red “Make America Great Again” with the words “Great Again” crossed out.
The caption of the tweet reads:
“Justice for Breonna Taylor”
Justice for Breonna Taylor pic.twitter.com/vkDYRc0Eb1
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) August 18, 2020
Despite the clear anti-police sentiment perpetuated by the team and its players LAPD officials still decided to support them in an internal email.
The email which was obtained by Breitbart News reads:
“The Chief of Police has authorized the wearing of Lakers hats by all Department personnel (sworn and civilian), while on-duty, from now until the conclusion of the finals. The Los Angeles Police Department would like to wish the Lakers much success.”
Many LAPD officers have expressed anger at their superiors for the betrayal. One officer anonymously told Breitbart:
“LAPD Rank and File are pissed. We’ve been betrayed and abandoned by the people who are supposed to speak up for us and the law abiding citizens we protect and serve.”
The officer went on to condemn the Los Angeles leaders who refused to push hard against last weekend’s attempted shooting of three officers:
“The Chief and Mayor refuse to go hard in the paint about the attempted murder of three police officers over the last week. Yet find time to push insulting garbage like this? We are supposed to ignore the repeated hatred from LeBron James and the rest of the major American Pro-Sports leagues?”
Who will stand up for officers if their own superiors won’t?
LOS ANGELES, CA – Earlier in September, we at Law Enforcement Today reported on a challenge of sorts issued by Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva to LeBron James.
Essentially, Sheriff Villanueva posed the challenge for James to contribute toward the reward money for those who can identify the shooter who ambushed two LASD deputies on September 12th.
However, when James was recently asked about the sheriff’s challenge, he stated that he had “zero comment,” on the matter.
Now, considering that James has an estimated net worth of $480 million and earns somewhere around $100 million annually, donating toward a noble fund to reward those who can identify a person who attempted to execute two officers shouldn’t be that big of a monetary setback.
I mean, we’re talking about the same person who donated $100,000 back in July of this year to help pay off fines accrued by ex-convicts in an effort to help them regain their right to vote in Florida.
That donation to Florida Rights Restoration Coalition happens to be the same organizational vehicle that has Mike Bloomberg in some hot water as well.
When Sheriff Villanueva posed a challenge for James to “match that and double that reward” regarding the injured deputies, the reward from the county was $100,000.
So, it’s not like a $100K donation is outside of James’ realm since he’s done it before – and also, he makes on average over $270,000 a day based upon the estimated $100M annual income from all sources.
But, when asked by members of the press on September 22nd about whether he’d entertain the challenge levied by the sheriff, all James had to say was:
“I have zero comment on the sheriff.”
Now, prior to James saying that he had “zero comment” on the sheriff, he did note that he in no way condones any violence toward police officers – which that is good that he said those words:
“I do not condone violence toward anyone. Police, black people, white people, anyone of color, anyone not of color, because that’s not going to ever make this world or America what we want it to be.”
Albeit James did also preface those statements with anecdotal instances where he claims to have witnessed police racially profiling black suspects, but he also noted the commonsense observation of not all police officers are “bad”:
“I’m not saying that all cops are bad because, I actually…throughout high school and things of that nature, and I’m around them all the time, and they’re not all bad.”
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