(07-13-2016, 11:11 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Thought about making a separate thread for this one, but I figured there were enough, so I put it here:
I thought Chris Paul's remarks were disrespectful to the memory of the currently deceased; as he grouped them in with Michael Brown. I thought LeBron's comments were excellent.
Dwayne Wade needs to put some socks on, but I agree... It HAS to stop.
Carmelo doesn't win enough for me to listen to him. I think he said blah, blah blah.
As a Cavs fan, I know LeBron has already put his money where his mouth is. Dude is paying for scholarships to the U of Akron for kids in his program.
I'm gonna break every record they've got. I'm tellin' you right now. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but it's goin' to get done.
Carmelo Anthony: Good evening. Tonight is a celebration of sports, celebrating our accomplishments and our victories. But in this moment of celebration, we asked to start the show tonight this way: the four of us talking to our fellow athletes with the country watching. Because we cannot ignore the realities of the current state of America. The events of the past week have put a spotlight on the injustice, distrust, and anger that plague so many of us. The system is broken. The problems are not new, the violence is not new, and the racial divide definitely is not new. But the urgency to great change is at an all time high.
Chris Paul: We stand here tonight accepting our role in uniting communities to be the change we need to see. We stand before you as fathers, sons, husbands, brothers, uncles, and in my case, as an African-American man and the nephew of a police officer, who is one of the hundreds of thousands of great officers serving this country. But Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Laquan McDonald, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile: this is also our reality. Generations ago, legends like Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown, Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe, and countless others—they set a model for what athletes should stand for. So we choose to follow in their footsteps.
Dwyane Wade: The racial profiling has to stop. The shoot-to-kill mentality has to stop. Not seeing the value of black and brown bodies has to stop. But also the retaliation has to stop. The endless gun violence in places like Chicago, Dallas, not to mention Orlando—it has to stop. Enough! Enough is enough. Now, as athletes, it’s on us to challenge each other to do even more than what we already do in our own communities. And the conversation cannot—it cannot stop as our schedules get busy again. It won’t always be convenient. It won’t. It won’t always be comfortable. But it is necessary.
LeBron James: We all feel helpless and frustrated by the violence. We do. But that’s not acceptable. It’s time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “What are we doing to create change?” It’s not about being a role model. It’s not about our responsibility to a condition of activism. I know tonight, we’ll honor Muhammad Ali, the G.O.A.T. To do his legacy any justice, let’s use this moment as a call to action to all professional athletes to educate ourselves, explore these issues, speak up, use our influence, and renounce all violence. And most importantly go back to our communities. Invest our time, our resources. Help rebuild them. Help strengthen them. Help change them. We all have to do better. Thank you.
(07-09-2016, 01:12 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Actually, no, because it wasn't true to begin with. Mass shootings are defined as four or more people being shot in a single incident. Using this criteria most mass shootings are committed by young black males. Ironically the far left decided on this criteria to inflate the number of "mass shootings" to illustrate the need for gun control. Unintentionally they then lost their "crazy white men" narrative. Unintended consequences and all.
You are just cherry picking a definition.. "Mass shooting" usually includes victims who are "selected indiscriminately" in public places, and this excludes gang related, criminal related, and family related killings. When you use this definition white people commit about two-thirds (64%) of the killings.
(07-14-2016, 12:47 PM)fredtoast Wrote: You are just cherry picking a definition.
I'm not cherry picking a damn thing counselor. As my post clearly stated the definition I was using for mass shooting was taken straight from left leaning sources, in this case https://www.massshootingtracker.org/about. In their own words;
Quote:We define a mass shooting to be an incident of violence in which 4 or more people are shot. We do not consider the motive of the shooter, or whether he or she shot up a school, workplace or street corner. Our mission is to record all incidents of mass gun violence. We include the shooter's death because suicide matters and means matter. Ignoring the shooter's death is not logically consistent with research that tracks the death toll of firearm suicides in our society.
Quote:"Mass shooting" usually includes victims who are "selected indiscriminately" in public places, and this excludes gang related, criminal related, and family related killings. When you use this definition white people commit about two-thirds (64%) of the killings.
Ahh, I see. Use one set of date when it fits your purpose, as in, "There have been X mass shootings in the last five years", and another set of data for, "Most mass shootings are committed by white people". Unintentionally bad things happen when you try and skew data eh?
(07-13-2016, 11:11 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I thought Chris Paul's remarks were disrespectful to the memory of the currently deceased; as he grouped them in with Michael Brown. I thought LeBron's comments were excellent.
So nobody thought a white guy might have anything of value to say? Or couldn't they find a white guy that speaks English in the NBA?
Four off-duty Minneapolis cops working the Minnesota Lynx game Saturday night left their posts after players called an end to racial profiling at a press conference. The officers also removed their names from future games at the Target Center, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Tuesday.
“I commend them for it,” Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Minneapolis Police Federation, told the newspaper. Kroll said that other officers would follow suit. “If [players] are going to keep their stance, all officers may refuse to work there,” he added.
Kroll said that “false narratives” have been perpetuated following some allegations of police misconduct, the Star-Tribune reported.
The Lynx responded to the officer’s actions in a statement provided to HuffPost on Tuesday, urging the public to have a “constructive discussion” about the last week’s shootings:
The Lynx organization was made aware about the concerns of the off duty Minneapolis police officers who had signed up to work Saturday night’s game vs. Dallas. While our players message mourned the loss of life due to last week’s shootings, we respect the right of those individual officers to express their own beliefs in their own way. At no time was the safety of our game in question as Target Center staffs extra personnel for each and every game. The Lynx and the entire WNBA have been saddened by the recent shootings in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and St. Paul. We continue to urge a constructive discussion about the issues raised by these tragedies.
“This is a human issue & we need to speak up for change, together.” -Maya pic.twitter.com/tyfl65Ag81
— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) July 9, 2016
The players wore black warmup shirts that read “Change Starts With Us ― Justice and Accountability” on the front. The back featured the names of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, both of whom police killed in separate shootings this month. The Dallas Police Department shield and “Black Lives Matter” were written at the bottom of the shirts.
“Racial profiling is a problem,” Lynx player Rebekkah Brunson said in introductory remarks during the press conference (above). She recalled a frightening incident involving police when she was 8 years old. Police drew their weapons on Brunson and her friends while they were playing, she said.
“Tonight we will be wearing shirts to honor and mourn the losses of precious American citizens and to plead for change in all of us,” Brunson said, per USA Today.
An up close look at the warm-up shirts #LosLynx are wearing to honor #AltonSterling #PhilandoCastile & #DallasPD pic.twitter.com/veqoGXP4VZ
— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) July 9, 2016
Teammate Maya Moore also mentioned that the shirts highlighted racial profiling and unjust violence against blacks. Moore stressed that the players do not condone violence against the police. It’s tragic that a sniper had targeted officers in Dallas, which has improved its de-escalation training efforts, resulting in fewer shootings by police, she added.
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
