The King Remains the King

Right-wing freaks will try to make LeBron's since-deleted tweet a lot cooler than it was.

I logged onto Twitter last night which was a mistake as always. (I will never quit logging onto Twitter.) I saw Texas Senator Ted Cruz, last seen flying to Cabo while his constituents froze to death in an energy disaster that his party created, whining about this since-deleted tweet from the greatest basketball player in the world:

It’s hilarious watching Cruz whine about a tweet mere months removed from him claiming that tweets from the former president of the United States totally didn’t lead to his army of petite bourgeoise dipshits from storming the capital in a futile attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

I won’t lie. The sauciness of the tweet from LeBron surprised me, though his follow-up comment did not:

LeBron James @KingJames

I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate -This isn’t about one officer.  it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY

I saw one right-wing loser comment, “I miss Michael Jordan so much,” like it’s a revelation that Republicans want to return to an era where black athletes entertained them without proffering political opinions. Too bad, honkey lips, Jordan’s decrepit ass ain’t walking through that door.

LeBron has built a school. He has built a community center. He has founded a voting rights group. And that’s just the stuff we know about; all while having the spotlight on him from when he was 16 years old. And now a certain segment of our population truly thinks a multimillionaire athlete who turned to Barack Obama during last year’s brief work stoppage is somehow a Communist:

Jason Whitlock @WhitlockJason

LeBron James, like other elites, is using racial division as a distraction as elites reshape America to be more like communist China. Elites prefer communism. Millionaire elites are protected by communism. They're the "Talented Tenth" W.E.B. Du Bois promoted. You're being played.

Damn that LeBron James! There was absolutely no racial division in this country until he and Chairman Xi Jinping came along!

It’s predictable these bad faith attacks on LeBron act like he is calling for Officer Nicholas E. Reardon to be assassinated in the street.

The Columbus Division of Police released Reardon’s name yesterday. He is 22 years old and a registered Republican who lives outside of Columbus (naturally) in Sunbury. He is the son of Columbus Police Sergeant Ed Reardon, who retired last year with 32 years and was renowned for his “in-your-face” style in training legions of the racist, power-hungry cops that walk our streets today.

According to one high school classmate at St. Charles Preparatory Academy, an elite all-boys private Catholic school in Bexley, Reardon is your prototypical recruit for the Columbus police:

Alex Saccocio @asacc101

Also to everyone saying stuff like “his quick thinking saved lives...”: I can PERSONALLY attest, he was dumb as bricks. He was never a “think on your feet” guy. He was a scrawny white kid with anger management issues who never had an original thought, perfect for the police.

That would explain why Reardon eventually transferred to and graduated from Bishop Watterson, another local private Catholic school with less rigorous academics.

His colleagues would be quick to point out this is why so many cops live outside of the city. What happens if they happen to shoot a 16-year-old girl within seconds of arriving on the scene of a teenage fight? It would be easy for any random asshole with a grudge to find them.

But the fact is Reardon’s address is easy to find. And if somebody was really crazy enough to go after a cop and bring the full weight of the American government down upon their head, a 40-minute jaunt to Sunbury wouldn’t stop them. The truth is cops live far away from the communities that they police because they look down upon those they’ve sworn to protect and serve.

Reardon’s life isn’t in danger, though he probably feels that way due to the world of paranoia in which most police officers engross themselves. Nobody is going to attack him or burn his house down because everybody knows Reardon has the power of the state behind him. Ma’Khia Bryant did not have that power behind her, which is why she’s dead and Reardon is still drawing a paycheck.

LeBron was saying Reardon will be the next Derek Chauvin.

Personally, I’m not so sure. Chauvin only became a national name because a bystander filmed the death of George Floyd and upended the entire police narrative. He would have gotten away with it otherwise, just like he had multiple times before.

The mayor has already spoke in support of Reardon. Our city and county prosecutors won’t do shit. (Hell, Gary Tyack, our new Democratic county prosecutor, may be dead considering he hasn’t even so much as issued a statement during this entire tragedy. He’s been a complete and total disappointment since being elected.)

And Attorney General Dave Yost? Well, that bozo is too busy trying to defend whatever barbaric anti-abortion measure the used car salesmen and drunken religious kooks cooked up in the legislature.

This is our system, which has made the conviction of cops such a rarity. Reardon took that joy of Chauvin’s conviction within minutes — and chances are he’ll continue to work in this city for the next 30 years of his career.

That, and not a tweet from an NBA superstar, is the true outrage in all of this.

THOSE WMDs. They hacked McDonald’s ice cream machines — and started a cold war… It’s not just young white liberals leaving religion… Experience: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years… Lessons learned (and forgotten) from the epidemics of the Civil War… Walter Mondale: The last old-school Democrat… Why am I so bad at typing?