The National Fraternal Order of Police condemned LeBron James for using his influence to call for an attack on the police officer who shot and killed a teenage girl wielding a knife to save the life of another black girl.
“@KingJames, with his vast resources & influence, should educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so, on the facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful & extremely reckless,” the FOP wrote on Twitter. “The officer saved a young girl’s life. No amount of gaslighting will change that fact.”
.@KingJames, with his vast resources & influence, should educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so, on the facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful & extremely reckless.
The officer saved a young girl's life. No amount of gaslighting will change that fact. pic.twitter.com/GTHn1VAAlf
— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) April 21, 2021
In a now-deleted tweet, the famous NBA player posted a picture of the alleged Columbus officer involved in the fatal shooting captioned with the words “YOU’RE NEXT” and “#ACCOUNTABILITY.” James removed the post but it still received more than 6,000 retweets in the short amount of time it circulated Twitter.
deleted but damage done? pic.twitter.com/GXJ05JIDI6
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 21, 2021
The White House, aided by the corporate media, also spun the incident to claim without evidence that the officer who shot the black teenage girl was motivated by racism.
“She was a child,” the White House wrote in a Wednesday statement on the shooting. “We know that police violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latino people and communities and that black women and girls, like black men and boys, experience higher rates of police violence.”
Bodycam footage of the Tuesday shooting that occurred shortly after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty in George Floyd’s death, however, shows Ma’Khia Bryant, believed to be 15 or 16, charging two people with a knife. As she moved towards another black girl, the police officer called for everyone to get down and then fired off four shots. Bryant was transported to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.
“We know based on this footage the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,” Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther told reporters.
