How crazy has the world become?
O.J. Simpson is defending the police – and condemning the media that has gone all-in on the Black Lives Matter narrative, and NBA star LeBron James, who is one of that narrative’s foremost and blinkered pushers.
O.J. posted a two-minute Twitter video he which he gently criticized James for his reaction to the police shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant on Tuesday.
A white police officer in Ohio killed Ma’Khia, who was black, as she was embroiled in a fight with another black girl and about to stab the other teenager. In response, James tweeted a photo of the officer, Nicholas Reardon, under the ominous caption: “You’re next.”
It appeared to be a reference to Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer found guilty of killing George Floyd last Memorial Day. James deleted the tweet after blowback.
O.J., who in 1995 was infamously acquitted of slaughtering his ex-wife and her friend outside her Los Angeles-area home with a knife, suggested James overreacted, and too quickly.
In the video, posted Thursday, O.J. said it was a “tough morning” digesting all the criticism leveled at James.
“I’m a fan of LeBron,” he began. “I admire the work that he’s done and how he has helped his community, and how he’s helped his friends, and how he’s been fighting all these social issues, especially that of systemic racism and the legal system and the police departments around our country.”
“But you can’t fight every battle. You know, you got to pick your battles,” O.J. offered.
“It’s a war that must be fought, but sometimes you need to take your time and be a little more patient before you comment on some of these bad incidents that are happening with police departments.”
“This one, LeBron should have waited,” O.J. added.
He continued, “I’m a little upset with most of the media because they showed us edited versions of what took place with the girl with the knife. They made it sound as if it was another police officer overreacting and killing a young black American.”
O.J. noted that when he viewed the whole video of the incident – which Columbus, Ohio, police released almost immediately to try to get ahead of the tidal wave of criticism from rabble-rousers like LeBron James — “the police guy had no choice, he responded.”
“We wish he could have pulled a taser. We wish he could have done it in another way. But in that instance, if he hadn’t done what he did, it appeared to me that another young American would have had her life taken,” O.J. said.
“I can’t fault what he did. I wish it was different. But I can’t fault it.”
“LeBron, keep fighting the fight. I think we’ve all got to be a little more patient,” O.J. concluded.
“I’m against defunding the police. I think you just have to redirect some of those funds to better training and maybe dealing with more psychological training.”
Which is a little ironic coming from a former double-murder suspect, whose case seemed open-and-shut to many of us, who eluded prison by arguing that police set him up.
OTHER NEWS: Activists Are Protesting Columbus Police Shooting Of Black Teen Wielding Knife, Here’s What They’re Saying