Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown has been an outspoken advocate against inequality, and in recent years, he has frequently voiced opposition to the continuing violence against the African American community at the hands of law enforcement.
On Saturday, five days after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Brown tweeted a call to action for his followers to join him walking the streets of Atlanta in the wake of Friday’s events.
5:30 @ cnn to MLK memorial cite come walk with me
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) May 30, 2020
“5:30 @ cnn to MLK memorial cite,” Brown tweeted, referencing the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta. “come walk with me.”
“don’t meet me there beat me there come walk with me bring your own signs,” Brown added.
Brown spent most of the NBA’s coronavirus shutdown working out in Boston.
Over the last week, protests cropped up throughout the country following the death of Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, 46, was killed by Derek Chauvin, a police officer who knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes and remained on Floyd after he stopped moving. Chauvin was charged with murder and manslaughter Friday.
On Friday, Brown tweeted that there are “no more cheeks to turn,” adding that police brutality is “an act of terrorism.”
“Being a bystander is no longer acceptable,” Brown said on Instagram. “If you and your friends are around or are witnesses to cultural biases, micro-aggressions, subtle acts of racism, actual racism etc. and you don’t speak up on it or do something about it, you are part of the problem. We’re past the point where if it’s not in your governance space so you have nothing to do with it. If you don’t speak up on these issues, you just as bad.”
Protests in Atlanta on Friday resulted in the destruction of buildings throughout the community. The College Football Hall of Fame was looted, and other businesses were damaged as well.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms condemned the incidents.
“What I see happening on the streets of Atlanta is not Atlanta,” Lance Bottoms said at a news conference. “This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. This is chaos. A protest has purpose. When Dr. King was assassinated, we didn’t do this to our city. If you want change in America, go and register to vote.”
Protests in Boston broke out as well. Some protestors were pepper sprayed outside of the District 4 Boston Police station on Harrison Avenue, but other protests in Massachusetts were peaceful.
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