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Home » LeBron James tries to backtrack on his tweet about the officer who shot Ma’Kiya Bryant in Columbus

LeBron James tries to backtrack on his tweet about the officer who shot Ma’Kiya Bryant in Columbus

The New Neo Posted on by

{NOTE: I already wrote about some of the facts of the Bryant case yesterday in this post.]

Let’s see: cops are called to the scene of a fight and are told by the callers that knives are involved. When they arrive, they see some girls (who turn out to be in their mid-teens, although I don’t know whether the cops knew at the time that they were that young) in the middle of a fight. One raises her hand that holds a large knife, and it very strongly appears that she is a split-second from plunging it into the other girl.

What should the cop do? This one shot the knife-wielding girl, and she died. All the subjects were black except the police officer. It is crystal clear why he shot, and it’s clear he probably saved the life of the other girl. Knives are extremely lethal weapons at close range, and this was close range. There was no chance of the officer getting close to the girls in time, and no way I can think of to have defused the situation, which had obviously been building for some time and which the spectators (including relatives of the girls) had been unable to de-escalate.

However, some people are not okay with a white cop defending anyone – even a black person – if it results in the death of another black person. And so we have reactions such as this tweet from LeBron James (now deleted), which appeared along with a big photo of the police officer who shot Bryant: “YOU’RE NEXT”:

James clearly got told, presumably by his lawyers (or Jack Dorsey or quite frankly, any sane rational human being) to take that down and just 20 minutes later, the basketball star deleted this disgusting tweet.

LeBron James has approximately 50 million followers. And yet apparently:

Here’s how James tried to excuse himself. It’s quite an exercise in Orwellian thought:

Got that? His tweet – which featured a frontal photo of the police officer, and the words “YOU’RE NEXT” all in caps – is now being used (by the right, no doubt – Republicans pounce!) to “create more hate,” as though his words themselves didn’t create plenty of hate. And then he follows that up with something even worse: “this isn’t about one officer.” No, LeBron, the problems are most definitely not about one officer. But your tweet was just as definitely about one officer – the one you were specifically targeting.

I’m going to assume that James thinks that most of his followers will never know the content of his original tweet and will accept his explanation. And who knows, he may be correct on that.

And as for the race-baiting ambulance-chasing lawyer Ben Crump, who’s gotten rich and famous off of the killing of black people by white cops, he’s up to his usual tactics. His modus operandi is always to get in early and loudly with a lie, plant the narrative, and then ignore the correction and hope everyone else does, too. It’s worked very well for him in the past. Here is a tweet of his from April 20th on the Bryant case:

I don’t see Twitter putting a note on that and calling it “misinformation.” Or “debunked.” And yet it is definitely both. The very unfortunate death of Ma’Kiya Bryant occurred because she was not only armed but about to stab another black girl.

And I bet Crump doesn’t tweet “another child lost!” whenever a child is killed in the inner city by a knife or gun wielded by another black person.

[NOTE: On the other hand, there’s this surprising reaction from someone on the left who gets it:

Progressive writer Zaid Jilani, who is no stranger to annoying the left (including media leftists) although he happens to be one of them, took to the Twitter machine yesterday to write a blisteringly spot-on critique of the absolutely shameless, incendiary tactics the left/mainstream media were utilizing in spinning the tall tales they were about the Bryant case.

In his rant, Jilani said that the “news media can’t report honestly about violent crime because it doesn’t recognize it as a thing that exists and impacts the lives of ordinary people.” In other words, if it’s not a violent situation they can use to advance “woke” narratives, they aren’t interested.

Jilani also noted that a very similar case involving two African-American teenage girls in Ohio from just the day before the Bryant shooting got little to no national media attention because police weren’t involved. It was a case involving a 13-year-old girl who stabbed another 13-year-old girl to death.

He concluded by stating that in cases like Bryant’s, the media were not simply reporting on them because they involved a loss of life. They were exploiting the tragedies to advance a narrative and to “promote division.” That is, he correctly pointed out, not journalism and is certainly not good at all for this country.

No, it’s not. There’s not all that much “journalism” in the MSM; it’s woke activism, and it’s meant to stir up trouble.]

Comments

LeBron James tries to backtrack on his tweet about the officer who shot Ma’Kiya Bryant in Columbus — 24 Comments

  1. This one ain’t going to work for the BLM crowd for the same reason the Floyd one did, the video.

  2. Of course it will. NBC edited the video to not show the knife. Now others did show it but if they are not watching those that show the knife they won’t believe it.

    Those 50 million followers hang on every word of Lebron James. Whatever he says will be taken as gospel … no matter the facts.

  3. One raises her hand that holds a large knife, and it very strongly appears that she is a split-second from plunging it into the other girl.

    What should the cop do? “

    Appeal for calm and civility, and write up the report after the ambulance has carted the corpse away.

  4. @DNW …

    Which corpse? The one shot by the cop or the one that gets stabbed from the cops inaction?

  5. I have been involved in gunshot wounds for 50 years. At LA County Hospital we would get a half dozen every night. Mostly blacks. We used to joke that Mexicans were afraid of guns since all the “Hispanics” we saw were stab wounds. That was largely true although we meant it as a joke.

    In private practice, I ran a Trauma Center for years but it was in south Orange County CA and we did not see many GSWs. We did see some and they were more of a mixed racial group. More domestic violence types. Lots of domestic violence, although nothing like downtown LA. The LAPD used to complain that they got sent to a “Receiving Hospital” that was well inferior to the County, which had much better care. In OC, I saw more shotgun wounds than pistol and rifle wounds were almost nonexistent.

    My brother-in-law is a retired Chicago cop and many family friends were cops. I think they should start screening 911 calls and avoid the areas of the city that they know do not appreciate them. Frankly, I don’t understand why anybody would want to be a cop now. Especially in Democrat cities. I know LAPD officers have been leaving for suburbs for years. I never understood why my brother-in-law, who had a Master’s Degree in Public Admin, stayed a cop.

  6. Crump first came to my attention in the Trayvon affair when his firm commissioned a crudely animated video “illustrating” the confrontation which got airplay and then followed up with another different one as some facts came out, but both portraying the lie they wanted implanted in the public’s mind.

  7. LeBron James demands accountability. What of his? What of Crump’s accountability? What of NBC’s? What of every major donor to BLM? What of everyone who voted for Xiden?

    Remember, ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law…

  8. Let’s see…
    not one sponsor will drop Peking James.
    not one fellow lawyer will move for Crump to be sanctioned by the Bar
    not one newscaster will apologize for the spin-edit

    Black is the new cloak of invisibility.
    Do anything. Say anything. You’re free as a bird.
    Someone else is going to be blamed.

  9. We don’t follow the NBA. If we had been following it, we would have stopped after revelations about its tight connections with the Chinese Communists. LeBron James knows basketball, but is ignorant on almost anything else, evidently.

  10. I have initiated a personal boycott of professional sports. It started years ago with the NBA; and is now virtually universal. I am sure that there are some decent people involved, but to me James is representative. Those who do not agree with his ilk, nevertheless tolerate them. So, fie on the lot.

    My effort has lately been extended to the pandering nabobs of college athletics who trash our symbols, and throw blanket accusations of racism at us. Since I have been a life-long sports fan,I am accused at home of “cutting off my nose to spite my face”. Frankly, it has not been a sacrifice. I don’t really miss them.

    The mystery to me is why the American public continues to support and enrich hypocrites who insult them, and worse.

    Footnote: we can be reasonably assured that James, like so many, has armed security around himself, who would react violently to any perceived threat.

  11. “jack on April 22, 2021 at 6:12 pm said:

    @DNW …

    Which corpse? The one shot by the cop or the one that gets stabbed from the cops inaction?”

    The corpse of the one that is stabbed to death by the one who disregarded the law enforcement officer’s gentle attempt to counsel calm and civility.

    You know, girls will fight – or so we are informed. And they will use knives on each other too. Just being who they are, some have opined. So, you know, “Who are we to judge?” as that potbellied little man in Rome is wont to say …

  12. “The mystery to me is why the American public continues to support and enrich hypocrites who insult them, and worse.”

    Vicarious living.

  13. Jack, maybe not. Unlike NBC, ABC and CBS at least showed the knife in Bryant’s hand.

  14. The Word has Gone Out that the SJW machine is not going to fight this battle.
    The unctuous hand-holding they do for each other is probably their own idea.
    (Their Pronouncement is mentioned briefly in the post Neo linked about Jilani.)

    https://www.newsweek.com/don-lemon-chris-cuomo-defend-officer-shot-makhia-bryant-1585708

    CNN’s Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo have defended the police officer who shot dead Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old Black girl, in Columbus.
    …Lemon noted that there was a “lot of anguish” about the teenager’s death, but added: “We’ve got to be fair about what happens when police arrive at scenes.”

    “It is tragic that it’s a 16-year-old girl, just as it is tragic that it’s a 13-year-old in Chicago,” Lemon said. “When police are chasing people, they don’t know how old they are.”
    …
    He continued: “When they roll up on the scene, they see people tussling around, someone has a knife, and their job is to protect and serve every life on that scene, and if they see someone who is in the process of taking a life … What decision do they have to make?”
    …
    During the discussion with Cuomo, Lemon also addressed comments that the officer should have deployed a Taser.

    “Tasers don’t work the way guns work,” Lemon said. “Not at that distance,” added Cuomo. “And not with that amount of time.”

    Lemon added: “If the woman in the pink was my sister, niece, wife, whatever … you have to make a decision. Is one life on that scene more valuable than another?

    “And if someone is trying to take a life on that scene, do you protect the life of the person trying to take the life or do you protect the life of the person whose life is an imminent danger at that moment?

    “It is tough because one is a 16-year-old. I don’t know how old the other person is, but that other person’s life was in imminent danger.”

    He later said: “Either way in that position, I think that someone’s life probably would have ended. It could have been the other woman in the pink or it could’ve been the 16-year-old who sadly ended up dying.”

    Cuomo told Lemon: “Everything you’re saying is instructive and brave. Because people don’t want to hear you say that this was a justified shooting.”

    On another post analyzing the video, John Podhoretz notes that the time from the officer exiting his car to firing the first shot is 9 seconds.
    I can’t get from my computer chair to my kitchen in 9 seconds.

    https://nypost.com/2021/04/21/jen-psaki-baselessly-and-disgracefully-racialized-the-killing-in-columbus/

    At the five-second mark in the video, the officer has gotten out of his car and is asking someone on the street, “What’s going on?” Two seconds — two seconds — later, the first girl being chased by Bryant falls to the ground.

    “Hey! Hey!” the cop says at the nine-second mark, as he spots Bryant turning toward the second girl. At the 10-second mark, he says with great urgency, “Get down! Get down! Get down!”

    It’s now the 12-second mark. The cop has removed his gun from his holster. At 13 seconds, Bryant’s arm is drawn. At 14, we see Bryant fall to the ground.

    What this means is that the officer found himself in the middle of a violent confrontation and had to act … within nine seconds.

    Count off nine seconds. Out of a car. Asks for information. Suddenly a girl falls in front of him, chased by Bryant and her knife. He tells her to get down before removing his weapon and has it in his hand in time to stop her from stabbing the girl against the car.

    I’ve watched the bodycam footage 25 times. I can’t imagine what else the police officer could possibly have done given the urgency of the moment — except allow Bryant to stab the other girl.

    The other thing that looks crazy to me is Bryant’s dad kicking the first girl, who was knocked to the ground by Bryant, right in front of the police!

  15. This other video from across the street may explain why the SJW/BLM crowd is backing off the case.

    https://redstate.com/bonchie/2021/04/22/new-video-angle-blows-up-original-narrative-about-makhia-bryant-shooting-n367014?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=onsite&utm_campaign=719

    When RedState first reported on the police shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, the details were sparse. While it was immediately admitted she had a knife, the family lied, claiming she had dropped it in the yard. The body-cam footage showed that wasn’t true, with Bryant clearly raising her arm with the knife to stab the person now know as the “girl in pink.”

    But there was another claim that has been part of the narrative to this day that also seemingly originated with the family. Namely, that Bryant was not the aggressor and had actually been “jumped.” This was used to suggest that Bryant was acting in self-defense even though the girl in pink was unarmed and holding a dog. Thus, as the story goes, Bryant was “murdered” by a cop who wouldn’t let a black girl defend herself.

    Well, a new angle has put that to rest.
    …
    If you watch the video, what you’ll see is Bryant come from the side of the house (maybe a door is back there?) with the knife while everyone else is just standing around. No one jumps Bryant. In fact, she starts shoving people first after announcing via profanity that she’s going to stab someone. In that initial scuffle, one person goes to the ground but Bryant remains on her feet. The officer who ultimately fires is right there and tries to break up what he thinks is just a fight. Then, he sees the knife, warns her multiple times, and just as Bryant brings her arm back to stab a girl who wasn’t even part of the altercation (at least physically), the officer fires and kills Bryant.

    There’s nothing left ambiguous about this situation. The shooting was justified by every letter of the law, and not only was it legally justified, but it was also morally justified to save an innocent girl’s life.

    Look, I don’t like having to break things down like this. A 16-year-old kid is dead, and that’s sad regardless of the circumstances. But when false narratives go forth, such as those spread by Lebron James, and police are demonized unfairly, more people are put in danger. Those falsehoods must be corrected. This video does that, and there should be no more “protests” over this incident.

  16. “On the other hand, there’s this surprising reaction from someone on the left who gets it”

    Isn’t it a sad commentary on the state of things, that telling the truth is a “surprising reaction from someone on the left”

  17. For over a century “telling the truth” has been heresy on the Left. Except in the rare case that the truth serves to increase the power and financial status of the Left’s “great” leaders.

  18. Cleveland Ohio here. LeBron is a great basketball talent, but barely scraped by in High School. Someone had to write that convoluted explanation for him.

    His best previous effort was commenting “He bum” about President Trump.

  19. I have a new standard on which to judge someone who’s worthy of conversation: If they believe all of the highlighted blacks deaths via police since Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown were unjustified, and were results of poor police training and/or racism (whether personal or systemic), then I can only suspect they lack brain cells.

    I mean, c’mon, something has to give. It’s all that the media highlights. It’s all that social media highlights. With a little bit of digging one would notice that it’s selective reporting and each story is usually framed the same way. In the meantime gang ridden neighborhoods of Chicago have black and brown people being shot and killed by other black and brown people who are non-police weekly, especially during the warmer months. Physicians are rarely put in the court of public opinion even though the profession commits so much malpractice that it’s the third leading cause of death in the US (the irony).

  20. Thank God the policeman had his gun drawn. Anything less and that girl in pink is dead, and probably the attacker, as well.

  21. A polite request for community engagement and reconciliation between the teens was all that was needed. That racist LEO clearly was wrong in his belligerent, oppressive, and unwarranted violence towards that sweet child who would have grown up to be a celebrity chef. She clearly was talented with kitchen utensils. (sarc)

    https://youtu.be/lxFrXuly_B0

  22. om, the worst suggestion I’ve seen is some TV idiot saying the police officer should have shot the knife out of Bryant’s hand. If he’d tried that, he would have killed the girl in pink, because that’s where the knife was headed. As it is, with very little time, he managed to hit only the aggressor and not anyone else.

  23. Kate:

    Dan Bongino’s podcast from yesterday had a good fisking of the “shoot the arm/leg” idiocy spouted by the media and the left.

    OT slightly, but the Capitol Policeman didn’t bother to shoot Ashli Babbitt (RIP) in the arm/hand/foot/leg or fire a warning shot. Did he see Ashli Babbitt carrying a virtual knife or deadly weapon? Don’t know who the shooter was, can’t ask either.

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