“As a proud American, a father who lost his own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a black man, I have been deeply troubled by the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement and angered by the cowardly and hateful targeting and killing of police officers. I grieve with the families who have lost loved ones, as I know their pain all too well.
“I was raised by parents who taught me to love and respect people regardless of their race or background, so I am saddened and frustrated by the divisive rhetoric and racial tensions that seem to be getting worse as of late. I know this country is better than that, and I can no longer stay silent. We need to find solutions that ensure people of color receive fair and equal treatment AND that police officers – who put their lives on the line every day to protect us all – are respected and supported.
“Over the past three decades I have seen up close the dedication of the law enforcement officers who protect me and my family. I have the greatest respect for their sacrifice and service. I also recognize that for many people of color their experiences with law enforcement have been different than mine. I have decided to speak out in the hope that we can come together as Americans, and through peaceful dialogue and education, achieve constructive change.
“To support that effort, I am making contributions of $1 million each to two organizations, the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s newly established Institute for Community-Police Relations and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The Institute for Community-Police Relations’ policy and oversight work is focused on building trust and promoting best practices in community policing.
“My donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the nation’s oldest civil rights law organization, will support its ongoing work in support of reforms that will build trust and respect between communities and law enforcement. Although I know these contributions alone are not enough to solve the problem, I hope the resources will help both organizations make a positive difference.
“We are privileged to live in the world’s greatest country – a country that has provided my family and me the greatest of opportunities. The problems we face didn’t happen overnight and they won’t be solved tomorrow, but if we all work together, we can foster greater understanding, positive change and create a more peaceful world for ourselves, our children, our families and our communities.”
“My donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the nation’s oldest civil rights law organization, will support its ongoing work in support of reforms that will build trust and respect between communities and law enforcement.”
I remember when the NAACP would certainly work to build trust. Heck, I was a member. But that was a long time ago and the NAACP is now just another radical group of poverty pimps.
Anyway, I do respect what Michael is trying to do. Good luck, MJ.
The NAACP had been around before 1867? I didn’t know.
I can appreciate putting a person’s money where their mouth is. I am not sure putting money into the International Association of Chiefs of Police is the right place to get money in the right places to make a difference. Community policing is a good concept, but most police departments do not have the manpower to do it effectively. I bet the best use of the money is to tackle the gang problem, though. No matter how many times the police knock on the door to have tea and crumpets with the neighbors, it won’t stop the allure of gangs when the gangbangers drive up in a shiny new BMW bought using drug money.
“Community policing” is today’s term for what used to be known as the beat cop. Assign the same guys to the same neighborhood, day after day, so they can build relationships, figure out who the good guys and bad guys are, and hopefully steer some kids away from the gangs by building trust. It doesn’t require any more manpower than other strategies.
Community policing is fought tooth and nail by police unions, because it subjects the same officers to the roughest neighborhoods, rather than rotate the duty. I kind of get it, but hey, if you don’t want to be a cop in a crime-infested urban hellhole, maybe you should’ve taken a job where they elect Republicans in local government.
It also arguably makes it easier for organized criminal collusion to infiltrate the ranks (bribes, favors, etc). Less of a concern since these areas typically have that drugs>gangs>charities>elected officials>federal aid>police leadership collusion train going already.
Which is exactly why William Parker eliminated the “beat cop” when he modernized the LAPD.
You’re right on the mark — just follow the money. How do we end the allure of gangs and being a thug? Cut off the money. That means ending the War on Drugs. Didn’t we learn anything from prohibition? People have always and will always use and abuse intoxicants. And saying your intoxicant, say alcohol or coffee, is OK and the other person’s intoxicant, say marijuana or coca leaf, is not, is being more than a bit hypocritical. The War on Drugs has also corrupted law enforcement culture, for it is much easier to rack up a bunch of drug bust than it is to solve murders, rapes, and other crimes. Law enforcement thrives, as an industry, off the funds provided for this phony war. And it has been an abysmal failure. Forty five years after Nixon’s declaration, with millions of dollars spent and millions of arrest, heroin is purer and cheaper than it’s ever been. We have taken a medical problem and made it a legal problem. The gang/thug culture and the corruption of law enforcement are the unintended consequences. Again…just follow the money.
“That means ending the War on Drugs. Didn’t we learn anything from prohibition?”
Yes, yes we did. We learned that gangsters will move on to the next illegal thing to traffic in, just as they moved from bootlegging to drug dealing, and the violence will continue.
Legalize the drugs, and the gangsters will just move on to prostitution. Legalize that, and they’ll move in to loan sharking. Legalize that, and they’ll move on to cigarette tax stamp counterfeiting. Legalize that, and they’ll move on to extortion and “protection.”
Bangers gotta bang, and hard. There are vicious people out there who want to operate outside of the law, ANY law, and who embrace a violent lifestyle. You can’t legalize crimes fast enough to accommodate them. They’ll never give up the Life and go enroll in arts & crafts classes at the local community college.
There are strong arguments for ending the war on drugs, but an immediate end to gang violence isn’t one of them. People who think legaizing drugs is the solution to violence, are as mistaken as the people who think criminalizing guns is the solution to violence.
Yep. I just watched a segment on Vice channel about gunrunning. The bangers deliberately trade in guns instead of drugs. Of course the goofy narrative was it was the fault of the states with “loose” laws. Carefully avoiding the brothers trading guns couldn’t buy in places like S. Carolina or Indiana EITHER. Add in “for profit” prisons and the war on drugs will never end…
Criminals already do all of that stuff. Moving something from a black market to a white market will not eliminate all illegal trade in it but it will reduce it. If a legal and easily accessible means to something that is in demand exists, what incentive does the average person have to participate in an illegal transaction?
FWW, you’re right, and I didn’t think of guns. Of course, the war in guns should end, too (no BCs, no FFLs, no Class 3 restrictions, constitutional carry everywhere, etc.), but there would still be a black market in stolen guns.
Matt, I guess you missed my point.
First, you will draw the line somewhere. If not drugs, then something else. There is something that is illegal which even you will refuse to make legal. Gangsters will trade in that.
Second, an infinite number of goods and services simultaneously exist in both legal markets and black markets: cars, guns, jewelry, human labor, you name it. Even when legal per se, there is a black market for stolen goods or forced labor. Gangsters do and will continue to trade in those.
I get the economics of black markets. The incentives aren’t as alluring as you suggest. The proof? It’s a tiny subculture engaged in the violent drug trade. The other 200 million of us aged 12 and over have real jobs or go to school.
You have to focus on the violent people who just want to live fast and free, preferably at others’ expense. Drugs are just a prop in that play.
Will the $2mill allow black children to know of their biological Father? Will it keep Mommy off the pipe etc…Dems think they can throw $$$$ at any problem and low and behold it’s fixed like magic. Bring the Black Family back together and watch the crime rate plummet…
Oh c’mon. Mike’s just covering all the bases. He didn’t become a billionaire by being controversial-he wants all the endorsements and ro be able to sell those(grossly) overpriced shoes to the black youts’…”I’m for all sides”. I’d care more if he wasn’t such a democrat supporter.
2Aguy “Bring the Black Family back together and watch the crime rate plummet”
ahem
How many kids have killed each other and others for shoes that bear his name?
Yep. I see this as a shrewd business move. As long as we “do something”. And I was a huge Bulls fan(in the 90’s). Heard some good stories about Mike’s gambling, whoreing and carousing…everyone was complicit just like he was a politician.
I wonder if the cop money may be for a building permit or something, and the NAACP bit to preserve his cred. Just seems odd a guy like him wouldn’t set up a charity with his name to rebuild communities (might actually be better received even)
I don’t think it’s Michael’s fault that idiots kill each other over shoes.
Should have just bought 2 million dollars worth of body cams and issued them to cops. 6 thousand of them would make a difference
Helpful, but not nearly a complete solution.
Class act. Put his money where his mouth is.
Not necessarily where I’d spend my money but I applaud the gentleman, it’s his money – not the taxpayer’s.
Bingo
Michael want to chuck is coin, that’s his business. Key word being parents…“I was raised by parents who taught me to love and respect people regardless of their race or background”
Unfortunately a majority of black families do not have two parents.
I think the fact that he considers himself a proud American and isn’t afraid to say so is a boon. After hearing so much anti-American rhetoric from the left I thought people were becoming afraid to identify themselves as such. Michael Jordan is clearly a class act. I hope he has continued success.
too bad he wasn’t raised by parents that taught him how to tip his servers.
“We need to find solutions that ensure people of color receive fair and equal treatment AND that police officers – who put their lives on the line every day to protect us all – are respected and supported.”
It’s the same solution on both sides – When the black community stops yelling “RACISM!” when black gang bangers and other criminal elements are legitimately targeted by law enforcement and when cops stop circling the wagons to support or decline to report dirty cops, then we may see a way to some progress.
If you are not part of the problem element in the group that is tarnishing the reputation of the entire group, stop supporting the miscreants and start supporting whatever (legal) steps are necessary to see that they are caught and punished for their crimes.
The NAACP is not the freedom fighting organization it once was.
They have become as dangerous to blacks as any white racist group from American history. The NAACP is a civilian disarmament group. They would be happy if only white policemen had guns. Any black person who helps socialist progressive white people take away the 2nd amendment rights of honest law abiding black people is a traitor.
The NAACP receives most of its money from white progressives. The black leadership does what they are told.
In ” Negroes with Guns” by Robert Williams , he writes how MLK and others in the civil rights leadership were afraid of losing money from north east liberals. So the civil rights leadership gave up guns to keep getting the white money.
But the ordinary black person never gave up their guns.
I hope the money given to the police will help people think about their irrational hatred of the police.
Perhaps people should hate and work to defeat people like the proud homosexual white man Tom Ammiano. He wrote the law in California making stalking victims wait up to ten extra days to get a gun.
I wonder how many women have been raped in California waiting to get a gun for self defense?
If Michael Jordan gives money to the Chiefs of Police, that proves you don’t have to be smart to be a millionaire. The Illinois Chiefs of Police opposed citizen carry for 40 years. When the U.S. Federal Court in Chicago overturned IL’s weapons law in Dec. 2012 based on the McDonald decision, NRA state lobbyist Todd Vandermyde fell all over himself to place Duty to Inform in Rep. Brandon Phelps concealed carry bill, because the anti-gun Chiefs of Police wanted it.
Duty to Inform is population control for the blacks in Chicago and Cook County. Phelps, Vandermyde, and the racist hicks who support them don’t care if blacks like Otis McDonald or Philando Castile get set up and killed by police criminals. They live in southern IL and are stupid enough to believe that the police are their friends. NRA, Inc. just uses blacks in a a race hustle to get their “NRA backed” bills passed. Then they get flushed down the toilet with DTI like Otis.
Michael Jordan’s money would be better spent to commission a research report into the background of Todd Vandermyde, the NRA, and their relationships with the anti-gun police unions that advance the killing of blacks by police.
One of several problems with the above rant is that Illinois’ Concealed Carry Statute has no “duty to inform.” It only says that you need to truthfully answer if LE asks if you are armed, and produce your license if LE asks for it.
It helps to actually read statutes before ranting on about them.
Hey Curtis demo boy is a one trick pony troll with a vendetta against Todd V.(and Richard Pearson). Oh he hates Chatsworth,IL(a little town sw from Kankakee). Illinois Rifle association guys and gals are heroes for their work on the 2nd. This boy is deranged…
Curtis- “It only says that you need to truthfully answer if LE asks if you are armed, and produce your license if LE asks for it.” Who is a legitimate law enforcement officer, and how is the licensed citizen supposed to know who walks up to them when they walk out their door in the morning? John Wayne Gacy had a Cook County Sheriff’s badge that he used to aid in abducting some of his victims.
Nothing in the IL Duty to Inform provision states that the “officer” has to be in uniform or on duty when he questions you. Vandermyde and Phelps slipped the DTI with criminal penalties into their “NRA backed” carry bill in 2013 because most of the brain dead hicks who support them live in southern IL where they drive everywhere. Like you they are too dense to read or understand the statutory language which encourages cops to use deadly force against armed citizens. The rednecks can’t conceive of running into a cop outside of a vehice stop. Like you, they don’t care if black people in Chicago get frisked at a CTA bus stop. Some police stops are on foot, not just when you are driving your monster trucks.
Thanks for illustrating the racism and ignorance that allows people like Todd Vandermyde to backstab NRA members and sell out Otis McDonald. Vandermyde couldn’t keep his job without people like you buying his lies.
Was his dad resisting arrest? No, he was changing a tire when 2 immigrants decided to rob him. Build. That. Wall.
Oh suck it, MJ. Three+ decades you’ve made your millions off of an affiliation with that open air Thunderdome that is Chicago, during which time many thousands of blacks have lost their lives, at the hands of other blacks.
Shed any tears for them? Spend any millions on them? Now that there’s an opportunity to slam the police, the wallet comes out? Got it. Get lost.
Very thoughtful statement. He could have done just as much by NOT pulling the race-card.though. If one REALLY believed in equality, it would not be necessary.
Amazing how in all the coverage about Michael Jordon speaking out and honestly addressing the devastating racial polarization of American society and the adverse effect that polarization has on law and order, the mainstream media has conveniently chosen to omit the fact that MJ knows all too well the palpable truth of the real threat facing black America is not law enforcement officers, but violent black predators. In 1993 Michael Jordan lost his father James in a senseless murder at the hands of two black predators who were subsequently captured and brought to justice by law enforcement officers.
Enabled by bigoted progressive liberal leaders in government along with liberal power brokers in business, sports, and entertainment, a sense of law and order in the U.S. has descended to a previously unimaginable low where hate speech like “F#@k the Police” is now somehow perversely hip and politically correct. The glaring truth is that the American law enforcement officer is the last line of defense protecting a sadly dysfunctional black America from itself.
The police were never meant to serve or protect the poor and working class. They were brought in to control them. At least that is their legacy in America. Sheriffs were the original peacekeepers and dealt directly with the community. They were elected which makes them accountable by the people they served.
I don’t know why people continue the narrative that police are there to serve anyone besides big financial interests.