I wrote a couple of days ago about how Deon Joseph, a black LAPD officer with 24 years of service on the force, wrote an open letter to LeBron James, asking for a one on one meeting in the aftermath of a tweet James posted last week that many viewed as a direct threat to the officer involved in the shooting death of Ma’Khia Bryant.
For those who missed it, this was the tweet James sent out to his 50 million followers the day after Bryant’s shooting death:
Deleted pic.twitter.com/Xqoasasev4
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 21, 2021
James ended up replacing the deleted tweet with one that simply read “accountability.”
The letter Officer Joseph wrote to James a few days later detailed what the job of a police officer sometimes entails and asked James to listen and learn to the perspective of a black officer who knows the vast majority of police officers are not the monsters James and others on the left make them out to be.
As of this writing, James has not responded to Joseph’s request. But that has not kept the veteran officer from continuing to speak out. He appeared on Fox News yesterday and continued with his mission to get James and other high profile critics of law enforcement to understand the other side of the story:
“You know, I’m tired of vitriol. I’m tired of the demagoguery against police officers and it’s so broad and it’s also dangerous because as that’s happening, we have political figures who are buying off on it,” Joseph said. “You know, I don’t mind Joe on the corner, on social media all day watching collages of cop hate videos is upset. But when we start hearing our politicians espousing the same rhetoric, that’s when it’s time to be concerned.”
“And what they end up doing is tying our hands over time, and actually hurting people of color in some of the most marginalized communities that we signed up to serve and protect as well,” he added.
Joseph also reiterated that his goal was to foster understanding between police and celebrity critics like James so there would be less knee-jerk reactions and more thoughtful dialogue going forward:
But I would like to work with someone like LeBron, who has some influence, who can influence all communities together, meet with police, again, to create this synergy where, you know, they understand the job we have. And also they can hear from us that we do care about them and want to make things better. We may not always agree, but there’s no hatred in our hearts towards any sector of the community. You know, it’s just some communities may be worse than others that would need our attention. But their skin is not their sin, disparity doesn’t always equal bias. You know, sometimes it’s just the data that drives us to the community. When you have 20 people getting stabbed on one block, we have to be there. And if we’re not people die.
Watch the full interview between Officer Joseph and “Fox and Friends” co-host Steve Doocy below:
Joseph is not the only member of the LA law enforcement community in recent days to speak out against James’ harsh rhetoric. Detective Jamie McBride, who is a member of the Los Angeles Police Protective League Board of Directors, went off on James during an interview on “The Ingraham Angle” earlier this week, calling him “one of the biggest hypocrites out there” for demeaning police officers while enjoying the benefit of off-duty officers for security for him and his family.
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