Hey Pro Athletes…Did You Know? (Updated)

Hey Pro Athletes…Did You Know? (Updated)

As y’all consider cancelling your sports and careers over Jacob Blake, take a moment to be sure your anger is righteous and well-directed.

Regarding the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012…did you know—

  • Martin’s death did not involve any ‘white against black’ behavior of any kind?
  • Martin’s death did not involve any police officer shooting him?
  • Martin was high on a drug concoction called ‘lean’ made from ingredients he bought that day at a 7/11?
  • Martin was straddling a prone George Zimmerman, fighting him and pounding Zimmerman’s head into a concrete curb, drawing blood, and very possibly on the way to killing him, when Zimmerman shot Martin?
  • Zimmerman was a registered Democrat and a volunteer mentor to black children?
  • Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense in the Martin death was validated by investigation, until a witness named Rachel Jeantel alleged she was Trayvon’s girlfriend, and alleged that she was on the phone with Trayvon just before he was killed, telling her that he feared a stranger (Zimmerman) was following him?
  • That Jeantel is now definitively established as a complete fraud? That her testimony was entirely made up?  That she was not Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend—a different girl, “Diamond Eugene”, was his girlfriend—and Jeantel’s testimony was a lie, fabricated for the purpose of enabling prosecutors to bring a bogus, hyped-by-the-media homicide charge against Zimmerman instead of letting him go free on grounds he acted in self-defense?

Every one of these facts about Trayvon Martin’s death is documented, proven, unchallenged and unchallengeable.

Here’s a guess…you didn’t know any of the foregoing.  You thought a ‘white-Hispanic’ semi-cop named George Zimmerman brazenly gunned down an innocent black teenager skipping through a neighborhood eating Skittles.

And here’s what you ought to be asking yourselves—why didn’t I know?

Here’s the answer:  you didn’t know because the mainstream media lies to you.

Here’s the next question you need to ask:  why does the mainstream media lie to me?

And here’s the answer to that one:  because they seek to manipulate you into reacting the way they want you to react in order to achieve their political agenda, which includes inducing black people to vote en masse for Democrats.

One more thing:  did you know BLM—the movement you so publicly embrace—openly points to Trayvon Martin’s death as the event that inspired their ‘defund the police’ (among other things) mission?

_____________

Regarding Michael Brown’s death in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri…did you know—

  • Eyewitness testimony and forensic analysis of gunshot wounds confirmed Michael Brown never put up his hands and said ‘don’t shoot’?
  • Eyewitness testimony confirmed Michael Brown was shot as he charged the officer, which followed an attempt by Brown to reach into the officer’s car to try and grab the officer’s gun?
  • The eyewitness testimony referred to above came from a black woman, Ciara Jenkins, who openly acknowledged her hostility to the police but insisted on telling the truth to the grand jury investigating the police officer’s actions?
  • Attorney General Eric Holder (a black man) conducted a thorough investigation (separate from local Missouri officials’ investigation) of officer Darren Wilson’s actions and concluded no charges against Wilson were warranted–effectively concluding that ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ never happened?
  • An entire play was created about the incident, consisting solely of verbatim grand jury testimony?  Audiences understood why no charges were brought against the officer…

Here’s another guess:  you didn’t know any of the foregoing.  You thought ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ was an accurate summary of what went down in Ferguson Missouri when Michael Brown was killed.  You thought when players on the St. Louis Rams were introduced for a game and came out in a pantomime of ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ that they were standing up for social justice instead of furthering a fraud and inciting suspicion and resentment of the police in the black community.

So again, here’s what you ought to be asking yourselves—why didn’t I know any of this?

Here’s the answer, again:  you didn’t know because the mainstream media lies to you, and for the same reason:  because they seek to manipulate you into reacting the way they want you to react in order to achieve their political agenda, which includes inducing black people to vote en masse for Democrats.

Let’s do one more.

Regarding the Charlottesville riots and President Trump’s mention of ‘very fine people’…did you know—

  • President Trump referred to groups of Americans who support as well as those who oppose tearing down a statue of Robert E. Lee as including ‘very fine people’; that he did not say that white supremacists or racists are very fine people?
  • There are videos and video transcripts that definitively prove exactly what President Trump said and meant, and that he specifically denounced neo-Nazis and white nationalists?
  • This ‘very fine people’ lie about what President Trump said has been repeatedly, thoroughly and publicly debunked by apolitical analysts?

Again, we’d guess you didn’t know any of this, and for all the same reasons.

_______________

You’re not stupid.  You can see the trend.

Do you think people who lie to you to get you to behave in a certain way respect you?

It’s time to wake up.  You’re being played.  A professional athlete, of all people, ought to be resentful as hell at being played by someone who does not respect you, who does not think you are smart enough to recognize you are being played.

No American wants to see citizens of any skin color randomly killed by police officers of any skin color.

You were told that’s what happened with Trayvon Martin—but it didn’t.

You were told that’s what happened with Michael Brown—but it didn’t.

And now you’re being told that’s what happened with Jacob Blake (though at this writing, he is still alive).  But…did you know—

  • Blake was actively resisting arrest, had escaped a tasing, and was heading for his car where he had a knife and was apparently attempting to retrieve it, when he was shot by police?
  • Blake had an arrest warrant pending against him for sexual assault?
  • Blake had an extensive criminal record, including felonies?

So y’all are going to collectively fall on your sword in support of an armed felon who was aggressively resisting arrest and got shot as a result–and your stance is apparently based on the notion that the officer should have waited to see if Blake retrieved a knife and lunged  at him first?

[UPDATE  August 30, 2020:  Take a look at this column, “Before You Honor Jacob Blake as  a Martyr, Read the Criminal Complaint Against Him“.   This is the guy you’re willing to sacrifice everything for?  Because why?]

Calm reflection using perfect hindsight may tell you that if you had been the officer, you would never have shot Blake, but try losing the hindsight and feeling the fear and adrenaline any normal person would have felt in the moment.  Sure of your conclusion as to what you would have done?

Your collective action is ramping up and delivering a message of condemnation of, and anger and resentment toward an American society that is filled with people who effectively pay you millions of dollars to play a game.

The effect of this will be catastrophic on your career and your sport…and the people who are goading you into doing all this are the same people who have shown they will deliberately lie to you to get you to behave in a certain way.

Maybe time for a little rethinking?

Eric Georgatos blogs at America Can We Talk?