The NBA players strike was led by the players of the Milwaukee Bucks.
It's
always suspicious when the police refuse to release the bodycam footage for an extended period of time. And it almost always means that the police officers' public statements about what happened are not going to be backed up by what the public sees.
Because police lie. They don't lie every time they open their mouths - that would be the president of the United States. But they lie whenever they have acted inappropriately, like
every bully that ever lived, when caught. Like almost every thief who ever lived.
They almost never say, until the video is out or about to come out, how dreadfully sorry they are, how badly they screwed up - and most of the exceptions are when it was a movie star, a public official, or other person of social significance to the public. Even then, it's not common, just possible.
They felt their lives were in danger, they explain. He looked like he was reaching for a gun. I thought he had a knife. He was reaching for my gun. He stole my badge and wallet!
And the response of "well, he shouldn't have broken the law" makes
so much sense. "He broke the law by parking wrong. We should assault him." "He talked back after I pushed him. He deserves punishment."
And part of what terrifies me is that we have upper level police defending their charges' actions even after the truth comes out, not just here or there. An outspoken sheriff in the south has explained that it is not police who need retraining, but the public. He's Black. And he's angry on behalf of the poor beleaguered police being told they need to stop shooting unarmed Black folks.
It's a racial problem, but as I have said once or twice, it is not
only a racial problem. It is a power problem, a police problem. And it is national, at a minimum.