Give Cops A Tech For Walking Out Of WNBA Game

Four police officers working the Minnesota Lynx WNBA basketball game walked out of Target Arena last Saturday, in protest of  members of the Lynx basketball team wearing  warmups that said ‘Change Starts With Us, Justice and Accountability’. On the back the shirt also says ‘Black Lives Matters, and the names of Philando Castile, and Alton Sterling, who were shot and killed by police in separate incidents last week.    Lynx forward Rebekkah Brunson said her teammates wore the shirts in order to “honor and mourn the loss of precious American citizens and to plead change for all of us.”

It seems ridiculous that some people take offense to  the shirts, which have a message of hope and unity, but the four members of the Minneapolis Police department did.  I have to assume it was the ‘Black Lives Matter’ lettering that the officers found so insulting. There is a lot of rhetoric coming from the right, attacking BLM.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the same man who moved his mistress into the mayor’s mansion, with his underaged children, and the father of a shop lifting daughter, went on Fox News (of course) to call BLM ‘inherently racist.’

Let’s be clear, there is absolutely nothing racist about ‘Black Lives Matter’. It would be different if it said: ‘Black Lives Matter…but white lives don’t.’ It does not say ‘only’ Black Lives Matter, but it definitely addresses what has been evident in the behavior of this society since its very inception.

When the courts ruled in Dred Scott then Plessy vs. Ferguson, the nation was not hesitant to rule that black lives did not matter.  When police departments were being charged to enforce the ‘Black Codes’ and ‘Jim Crow’ laws, they took no issue with the fact the laws codified that black lives did not matter.  When insurance companies were writing actuarial tables that valued black lives monetarily far less than white lives, no one protested complaining that ‘all’ lives matter.   When, New York cops, under Giuliani’s watch, sodomized Abner Louima with broom sticks, and gunned down  unarmed Amadou Diallo on his stoop,  Giuliani did not pronounce to the city that all lives mattered.

So, can someone tell us when this change in ideology came to Giuliani, or the others making these absurd allegations regarding Black Lives Matter?  Furthermore,  if this is the new thinking of America when will it be evidenced by the practices of this nation?  Until then, if we all agree that all lives matter, then why should this group be vilified for their choice to focus on Black Lives?

But enough about Guiliani’s’ sorry ass.

It is disappointing to see the officers walk off the job. They walked away from an assignment they had committed to fulfilling. Like it or not,  players have a right to express their feelings on a matter.  Like it or not,  police are charged to protect that right. That is the oath the police officers took.

If officers cannot live up to the oath they swore, then perhaps a career in law enforcement isn’t what those officers need.   They are charged to protect and serve, and that means protecting people who may not agree with you, or even like you.

Certainly, everyone understands how difficult it is being a police officer.  It is quite often a thankless job, not to mention an extremely dangerous job.

And, the emotional state of officers every where has to be in flux following the events in Dallas, and the intense focus on police brutality. Nonetheless, they still have a job to do. You can’t only protect the people you agree with.

Police have every right in the world to be able to come to work, do their jobs, and go home. But so does every citizen. Therefore, police should not take offense when people make that point in public. That is part of the job, too.