Four off-duty police officers who were providing security at Saturday night’s game at the Target Center arena walked off the job after Minnesota Lynx players wore pregame warm-up shirts supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.The t-shirts said, “Change Starts With US — Justice & Accountability” on the front, and on the back it listed the names of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, two black men who were fatally shot by police officers last week. The back of the shirt also featured the Dallas police shield above the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” Last Thursday night, five police officers were killed by a man who went on a shooting rampage in Dallas during a police brutality protest.
Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Minneapolis Police Federation, the union that represents rank-and-file officers, praised them for quitting. “I commend them for it,” he told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Kroll said the four officers also removed themselves from a list of officers working future games. He did not know who the officers were. “Others said they heard about it and they were not going to work Lynx games,” he said.
Asked if other officers will fill in for those who quit, Kroll said, “If [the players] are going to keep their stance, all officers may refuse to work there.”
Also from the Star Tribune:
Asked about a report that seven or eight officers had walked off the job, Kroll said, “They only have four officers working the event because the Lynx have such a pathetic draw.”
Sidenote: They’re the three-time NBA champions.
At a pregame news conference, Lynx forward Rebekkah Brunson said the players were “wearing shirts to honor and mourn the loss of precious American citizens and to plead change for all of us.”
“We are highlighting a longtime problem of racial profiling,” said forward Maya Moore, the 2014 WNBA MVP.
Players also denounced the “senseless ambush” of Dallas police.
The team sent this statement to For The Win:
“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 statement continued. “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.”
