I’ll admit I’ve never been a big fan of Charles Barkley. I thought he said some pretty idiotic things about Romney back during the 2012 presidential campaign that I thought were pretty uncalled for. And I’m pretty confident that he voted for the guy that has now so screwed up this country that we may never be able to get it straightened out. And for no other reason than because that very same guy is black. So imagine my surprise when I heard that he had actually come out on the side of the police officer.
It was during an interview on the Communist News Network (CNN) that Barkley made the point that race is never discussed in the United States until "something bad happens." And he went on to say that he finds it "ridiculous" when people believe white police officers set out to shoot African-Americans. He told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin, "We never discuss race in this country until something bad happens," and even then, "everybody wants to protect their own tribe, whether they are right or wrong."
The controversial star, who is now a basketball analyst for Turner Sports, has come under fire in recent days after calling protesters who have destroyed businesses in Ferguson "scumbags" and complaining that some successful African-Americans like himself are degraded by the community for not being "black enough." Barkley also agrees with a Missouri grand jury's decision not to indict white former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of the 18-year-old, 300 pound thug, Michael Brown.
Barkley has had his own issues with the police, but told Baldwin that many communities complain about racial profiling after they call for police to clean up their neighborhood, and said there is "a reason" for racial profiling. Barkley said, "We as black people, we have a lot of crooks." He went on to say, "We can't just wait until something like (the Michael Brown shooting) happens. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror." He added, "There is a reason that they racially profile us in the way they do. Sometimes it is wrong, and sometimes it is right."
While Barkley criticized rioters who caused destruction in Ferguson, he said he agrees with peaceful protests, such as the other demonstrations being waged in Ferguson or such as the ones by NFL players who held up their hands in the "don't shoot" pose that has been used after the Brown death. But personally, I disagree with what these football players did, because this dead thug never once had his hands up. And to try to create the perception that he did is to do nothing more than to perpetuate what is nothing more than a lie.
Barkley said, "Anybody who walks out peacefully, who protests peacefully, that's what this country was built on." And then went on to say, "But to be burning peoples' property, burning police cars, looting peoples' stores, that is 100 percent ridiculous." But where is the need to protest in any fashion? This cop was doing nothing more than trying to prevent this 300 pound thug from killing him. What, exactly, is there that’s deserving of a protest, the fact that the white cop survived and the black thug, so intent upon killing him, didn’t?
Barkley did seem to contradict himself a bit because while he decried the rioting in Ferguson's streets, it was at the same time that he said that he does not think Brown's stepfather, Louis Head, should face charges of inciting a riot, after being captured on video yelling "burn this bitch down" after the grand jury made its decision. Focusing on such issues confuses the situation, Barkley told Baldwin, as "there's so much noise going on you never get to the crux of the issue that you need to be discussing." I disagree! The guy belongs in prison!
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