That deleted tweet continues to haunt LeBron James. The Los Angeles Lakers star kicked up dust over on Twitter last week after the officer responsible for shooting 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant was identified as Nicholas Reardon. James shared a screenshot of Reardon at the scene of Ma'Khia's foster home with the caption "You're Next #Accountability."
James was hit with an onslaught of backlash from people who accused the basketball star of inciting violence against Reardon. Yet, LeBron's defenders pointed out that his message was following the Derek Chauvin verdict, and James was speaking about legal justice. That explanation was ignored but still, James took down his original message.
An officer with the Los Angeles Police Department has gone viral after sharing an open letter of condemnation directed at LeBron. Deon Joseph began his letter by saying he wasn't coming "from a place of hatred" and complimented the sports icon for his charitable work. Then he let LeBron have it.
"Instead of apologizing, you deflected," wrote Joseph. "You said you took your tweet down because you did not want it to be used for hate, when the tweet itself was the embodiment of hatred, rooted in a lack of understanding of the danger of the situation." Joseph added that he hoped to sit down with James to explain to him "the reality of the profession of policing."
"You are tired of Black folks dying? So am I. You hate racism and police brutality? So do I. But you cannot paint 800,000 men and women who are of all races, faiths, sexual orientations and are also mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, preachers, coaches, community members and just human with such a broad and destructive brush." Some critics of Joseph took to social media to point out the overwhelming amount of accusations of police brutality, profiling, and corruption within the LAPD, but he has yet to respond to their questions.
Read through Joseph's message in full below.