RE: NBA players and other sports not playing.
I fully support everyone speaking or being silent. I supported Colin Kaepernick kneeling, I supported Bernie Sanders saying nice things about Fidel Castro, I supported Ellen having laughs at a sporting event with W Bush. It is never (never!) about whether I agree with the substance. Speak or be silent as you wish.
Doc Rivers speech was very powerful, but so was the LA DA when she defended her husband’s negative reaction to a BLM crowd knocking on her house door before dawn.
Carry on. Disagree vociferously, not violently. Hear that last part? NOT VIOLENTLY!
On the substance, I think the answer is closer to the recommendations in President Obama’s DOJ report following Ferguson than it is to the slogan “defund the police”. You know, the changes in policies recommended by a Black president and AG of color, and implemented in many cities by mayors and police chiefs who are women and people of color. Maybe, just maybe, crowds that chant slogans to silence dissent and then say the slogan doesn’t mean the plain meaning of the slogan (defund the police), know less about criminal justice reform than people of color involved in criminal justice for decades. But maybe not.
I’ve been wrong before, and will be wrong many more times before I die. I hope the street activists shouting down anyone who disagrees with them have the humility to believe that when it comes to specifics, they could be wrong.
In any case, pause the NBA and I’ll continue watching my morning KBO. I’ll revive my NBA greatest player debates when y’all return. From me, no negative consequences for expressing yourselves, even if you are seen laughing with Ellen.
Independent Perception 