Athletes and teams took the risk of looking ridiculous when they jumped on the Jacob Blake shooting to push Black Lives Matter talking points. Now, they do look ridiculous, but instead of admitting that they were wrong, they have opted to reinforce their position.
As the shooting happened in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Bucks were the first team to boycott their own game as some sort of symbolic stand against police brutality. They were then joined by the rest of the NBA, the MLB, and the NHL, all of which were playing at the time. While the NFL was still in its offseason, teams such as the Detroit Lions walked out of practice to protest.
In the decision by the Kenosha district attorney’s office not to charge the officers who shot Blake, it’s clear how foolish the decision of athletes to protest was. “Very important — Jacob Blake, while actively resisting, arms himself with a knife … It is absolutely incontrovertible that Jacob Blake was armed with a knife during this encounter,” District Attorney Michael Graveley said. “Incontrovertible. Most incontrovertible because Jacob Blake, in all of the times he spoke to DCI, admits he possessed a knife.”
So, Blake violated the restraining order to stay away from a woman whom he had been accused of sexually assaulting (that charge was dropped, but he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges related to the incident). Blake then ignored police instructions and returned to his vehicle, where officers saw the knife with which Blake admitted to being armed. This would be the optimal time for athletes who were clearly out of their depth to rectify their position. Instead, they’re still pushing the police brutality narrative.
The Milwaukee Bucks organization released a statement saying that it “remains firmly against excessive use of force by law enforcement,” as if that is still relevant to this incident. Marquette University’s men’s basketball team said it was “extremely disappointed” that the officers were not going to be prosecuted for acting in defense of their own lives, which SportsCenter happily promoted.
Marquette announced they decided to wear black uniforms tonight to show support for Jacob Blake, his family and the Kenosha community.
“We are extremely disappointed in the decision involving Jacob’s shooting …” pic.twitter.com/RkLSMdsIRB
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 6, 2021
LeBron James, who has repeated his support of the suppression of Hong Kong democracy protesters by the Chinese Communist Party, unsurprisingly repeated his stance here as well. “To hear what happened in Kenosha today was a blow to the heart and to the gut,” James said, in response to the district attorney’s decision not to charge the officers involved.
But Blake was not a victim of racism or police brutality. That James and athletes staked their ground just minutes after the incident made the news tells you about their naivete. That they still refuse to admit they were wrong tells you they are completely unserious in their desire for police reform.
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CORRECTION: This article has been corrected on the matter of what Blake was charged with and what he pleaded guilty to.
