Police officers across the United States have shared videos responding to the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James’ anti-cop comments on Twitter aimed at an Ohio cop who shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant as she was attacking another teenaged girl with a knife.
The NBA star had posted a photo of Ohio police officer Nicholas Reardon in a now-deleted tweet on Tuesday saying, “YOU’RE NEXT” along with an image of an hourglass and the hashtag “#ACCOUNTABILITY.”
In one such video that has been shared over 2.4 million times on the social media platform TikTok, Nate Silvester, an officer with the Marshal’s Office in Bellevue, Idaho, mocks James by pretending to seek his permission before stopping a knife fight.
“Dispatch, I’ve arrived at that disturbance. Will you have LeBron call my cellphone right away, please? Thank you,” Silvester says in the viral video.
The officer then looks out the window and gently asks a pretend suspect to “put the knife down, please.”
“Sir, no no, no. Sir, don’t stab him. No, stop stabbing him,” he says before taking a fake phone call from James.
“LeBron, hey, yeah it’s me again,” Silvester says. “Listen, I’m out here at this disturbance call and there’s a guy trying to stab another guy with a knife. What do you think I should do?”
“Okay, well, they’re both Black,” the cop continues. “One guy is trying to stab another guy with a knife. Deadly force is completely justified.”
Silvester pauses as though he is listening to James, and then he adds, “So, you don’t care if a Black person kills another Black person—but you do care if a white cop kills a black person, even if he’s doing it to save the life of another black person?”
“I mean, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but then again, you’re really good at basketball so I guess I’ll take your word for it.”
The cop then turns to speak out the window of his cruiser like he is addressing two men in a knife fight, saying, “Sorry guys, you’re on your own. Good luck.”
In another video, an officer mocks “Chief LeBron” in a pretend call asking the professional athlete for advice.
“Hey Chief LeBron. I’ve seen some naked dude running down 5th Avenue,” the cop says, pausing to suggest he’s getting instruction from James. “Perfectly acceptable. Ok, you know better than us, so.”
“I understand. I’ll go shoot some hoops, then.”
Last week, former President Donald Trump also slammed James for his remarks, saying, “LeBron James should focus on basketball rather than presiding over the destruction of the NBA, which has just recorded the lowest television RATINGS, by far, in the long and distinguished history of the League,” Trump said in a statement provided to American Military News.
“His RACIST rants are divisive, nasty, insulting, and demeaning. He may be a great basketball player, but he is doing nothing to bring our Country together!”
