Former NBA player Stephen Jackson called for the arrests and convictions of all four officers involved in the murder of George Floyd.
“I’m going to use everything I have to get a conviction to get all these mother fuckers in jail,” said Jackson.
Jackson has become a leading voice in the protests for justice after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed his longtime friend through unnecessary force.
At a rally in Minneapolis on Friday, Jackson was joined by prominent figures such as actor Jamie Foxx and Timberwolves players Josh Okogie and Karl Anthony Towns. Towns was seen sporting a Black Lives Matter hat and participated in the rally only a few weeks after his mother passed away from COVID-19.
Jackson, Foxx, and other community activists spoke both eloquently and powerfully during a press conference that was partially aired on CNN.
“We came for justice, we came for convictions,” Jackson said. “I’m here because they are not about to demean the character of George Floyd, my twin. A lot of times when police do things they know that is wrong, the first thing they try to do is cover it up and bring up your background, to make it seem like the bullshit that they did was worth it.”
“You can’t tell me when that man had his knee on my brother’s neck, taking his life away with his hand in his pocket that that smirk on his face didn’t say ‘I’m protected.”
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Friday that Chauvin had been arrested and charged with both murder and manslaughter.
Warrants for Chauvin’s accomplices have not yet been issued, but Jackson vowed nonetheless to continue his efforts to hold them accountable for their actions — and help provide for Floyd’s two daughters, in his honor.
“This shit is definitely gonna take care of my brother’s kids.”
Jackson’s willingness to be at the forefront of this movement for justice is not merely admirable, it’s heroic. He’s not only articulating the feelings of an entire community but he is attempting to look out for another man’s children in arguably the worst time of their young lives.
And Jackson is doing all of this while promoting messages of both unity and truth, not only to the black community, but to people of all races.
“I’m a proud black man, and I mean that from the bottom of my soul, and I can say that and tell everybody here I still love you,” said Jackson. “To my white brothers, I love you. Every race here, I love you, but it comes to a point now where if you love me and you not standing on the side of me, then your love don’t mean shit.”
Jackson’s actions are a representation of the black community as a whole.
In times of complete darkness, we can still become a light. Through our pain, we can still produce progress.
Jackson and other black leaders aren’t the first to show us how strong we are. They are only the latest example.
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