Two of the most prominent NBA coaches teamed up with recognizable names of the sports world to call for police accountability in the wake of the brutality the country has now witnessed for years.
Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors and Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs teamed up with Anquan Boldin, Demario Davis, and Andrew McCutchen to deliver an op-ed condemning acts of senseless violence toward black unarmed citizens and demanding for police to become more accountable.
Police unaccountability is a large part of the disease, as they are the ones armed with the weapons and manpower to terrorize black citizens. Kerr and Popovich got to the root of the problem in this op-ed by asking a simple question: “Where is the accountability for cops?”
Via USA TODAY:
“When these killings occur, we tweet, we write letters, we make videos demanding accountability. We protest and we vow to change hearts and minds so that our young men can run through the streets without fear.
And soon after, we see another officer kill a black person, usually a man, and usually without consequence. Where, we wonder, is the “accountability” allegedly so important when it comes to arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating young people of color?
We cannot wait to change hearts and minds — too many people will die while we try. We need to transform American policing now. We need changes that will actually alter behavior, prevent officers from harming people with impunity, and allow officials to hold officers and departments accountable when they do.”
This unaccountability has been bred into police culture for centuries — not only with policies that give cops every advantage, but also a police department that has been taught to do everything to protect its own, whether they have acted justly or not.
That same line of thinking has helped caused the deaths of Jason Harrison, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd, among many others:
“Among the greatest obstacles to cleaning up our police departments are police union contracts, which hamstring officials’ ability to fire officers who engage in bad and even deadly behavior. Those contracts, nearly always negotiated behind closed doors, have clauses that determine how misbehavior may be disciplined. Many contracts prevent departments from investigating reports made by anonymous civilians. They allow officers accused of serious misconduct to review the complaint and the evidence before making statements to investigators, ensuring that they can craft their story to best explain whatever the evidence will show. When these investigations are complete (or simply not investigated), many contracts require departments to destroy personnel records or evidence of civilian complaints after a period of time.”
Kerr, Popovich, and many others in the NBA and around the world are tired of the senseless abuse of power — a mix of cultivated racism and a knack for imposing power over those who have no means to defend themselves.
These star NBA coaches are calling for more accountability, stricter rules, and a complete reinvention of how the police work, as it has been infested with a toxic environment that renders racial abuse as inconsequential.
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