In an open letter to LeBron James this week, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Deon Joseph slammed the basketball star/activist blowhard for his anti-police demagoguery, saying it hurts the minorities James claims to want to help.
Joseph called James’ attacks on police “irresponsible and disturbing” and asked for a meeting to discuss better ways to approach the police/community divide. “I was a young, African American male in society. And when I came up, I came up in the late 80s and 90s and early 90s,” Joseph told Fox host Steve Doocy.
“So that was a very violent and turbulent time,” he continued. “But also, it was a time of anti-police sentiment where, you know, we had the Rodney King incident… and all these other things. And all my family and friends, we kind of had to share this monolithic view that all police were inherently our enemy. They were our natural enemy.
“But once I stepped across that line [and became a cop], I discovered that the vast majority of police officers are just hard-working, decent human beings from all walks of life. And that 90% of what’s said about police officers is just not true. We’re not perfect. Yes, there’s a negative exception. But there’s an honorable rule to them that we need to talk about them as well, to get balance…
“I don’t mind Joe on the corner, on social media all day watching collages of cop hate videos is upset. But when we start hearing our politicians espousing the same rhetoric, that’s when it’s time to be concerned,” Joseph added. “And what they end up doing is tire tying our hands over time, and actually hurting people of color in some of the most marginalized communities that we signed up to serve and protect as well.”