NBA star and radical leftwing activist LeBron James finally addressed a challenge to him by Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva on behalf of the two police officers ambushed in Compton earlier this month. His response, to say the least, is disappointing.
LeBron James Finally Responds To Challenge By LA Sheriff Villanueva
When a reporter pressed LeBron James about Sheriff Villanueva’s challenge on Tuesday, the Lakers power forward replied, “I have zero comment on the sheriff.”
LeBron James has "zero comment" response to L.A. sheriff's reward money challenge https://t.co/mWKsBNJb0m pic.twitter.com/mVCQcLYj8X
— Ryan Parker (@TheRyanParker) September 23, 2020
10 days prior, LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva challenged LeBron James to match the reward money offered to anyone who could help find authorities locate those involved in the ambush style shooting of his two deputies.
The two sheriff’s deputies had been sitting in a parked car next to a train station in Los Angeles when the suspect approached them and opened fire through the window, leaving the officers seriously injured in the unprovoked attack.
“This challenge is to LeBron James,” Villanueva said. “I want you to match that and double that reward because I know you care about law enforcement. You expressed a very interesting statement on race relations and officer-involved shootings and the impact it has on the African American community. And I appreciate that.”
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LeBron James Addresses Ambush Of LA Police Officers
Sheriff Villanueva’s challenge came two days after LeBron James reacted to the Compton shooting in a post-game interview:
“We don’t want anyone to be injured. We don’t want anyone to be hurt. My condolences go out to the officers that were shot in Los Angeles. And we want justice for that, as well as we want justice for Breonna Taylor, and so on and so on.
We don’t want no violence. We preach for the better of love and peace. Hopefully we can get that at some point in our communities—but [to achieve it as] us as a nation because that’s what’s going to make us the greatest nation again. All peace and all love.”
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“I’ve never in my 35 years ever condoned violence”
After his no comment on Tuesday, LeBron James talked about growing up in the “hood” and why he doesn’t “condone violence”.
“I’ve never in my 35 years ever condoned violence. Never have. But I also know what’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. I grew up in the inner city in a black community in what we called the hood or the ghetto. … I’ve seen a lot of counts firsthand of a lot of black people being … racially profiled because of our color. And I’ve seen it throughout my whole life.”
“And 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. But when you see the videos that’s going on and you can see all over the — not only my hometown but all over America — you continue to see the acts of violence toward my kind, I can’t do nothing but to speak about it and see the common denominator.”
“But not one time have I ever said, ‘Let’s act violent toward cops.’ I just said that what’s going on in our community is not OK, and we fear for that, and we fear for our lives. It’s something that we go on every single day as a black man and a black woman and a black kid, a black girl. We fear. We fear that moment when we’re pulled over.”
You can watch his speech following the Lakers’ Game 3 loss to the Denver Nuggets in the tweeted video below.
LeBron responds to LA county sheriff implying he was responsible for inciting violence against police "I've never in my 35 years ever condoned violence" pic.twitter.com/x0epf5l2bb
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 23, 2020
LeBron James Had An Opportunity to Help Right A Wrong
The NBA superstar missed a beautiful opportunity here. Sheriff Villanueva’s challenge presented LeBron James the opportunity to show that blue lives matter to him just as much as black lives do.
That he cares about all the lives in the city where he’s idolized, and that he calls home.
It’s a shame that he’s too interested in his activism to help right a wrong where there is one. In his own words, he knows “what’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong”.
What happened to those two sheriff’s deputies in Compton is clearly wrong.
One is the 31-year-old deputy mother of a 6-year-old boy. Their lives should matter to LeBron James.
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