Cordarrelle Patterson and the Chicago Bears express fear as they continue to reckon with the Breonna Taylor ruling: ‘It was heartbreaking’
Cordarrelle Patterson saw the Breonna Taylor ruling through the eyes of his 8-year-old son.
“My girlfriend, she’s white. So my kids are mixed,” the Chicago Bears running back and return specialist said via Zoom Thursday. "But I’m fully Black so my kids think they’re fully Black, so they don’t see color.
"… So, when my kid comes to me asking like, why is this going on? First thing he said was like, ‘I thought Dr. Martin Luther King fixed all this?’
“I was like, ‘How do you even know stuff like this, dude?’”
More than six months after Taylor, an emergency medical worker, was shot to death during the execution of a no-knock warrant on March 13, a Kentucky grand jury declined to indict two of the three Louisville police officers Wednesday on charges related to her killing. Former police officer Brett Hankison was indicted on “wanton endangerment” charges related to shooting into a neighbor’s apartment.
“It was crazy,” Patterson said of watching news reports. "Looking at that with my family and kids, it was heartbreaking.
“It’s hard for what her family is going through, man, I can’t say I understand because I don’t. But just talking to my family trying to understand as much as possible as what’s going on in this world, man, I’m just sorry to her family and everybody in Louisville and what they’re going through right now.”
Patterson said his children — whose ages are 7, 6 and 2, and “one on the way” — were coming to grips with the grand jury ruling and what it means for Black people in America, as well as protests and debates over racial injustice.
“It’s real challenging, man,” he said. "Our son right now, he understands what’s going on but he don’t understand. As we watch the news, he’s watching it too and he really can’t get it through his head what’s going on. And we try to make him understand but I don’t really want him understanding everything that’s going on at such a young age.
“Kids shouldn’t have to go through the experience we’re going through right now. … Just try to educate them as much as I can on it, but I really don’t want them to have to go through this stuff in the world.”
Truth be told, Patterson and other Bears appeared to wrestle with their thoughts and emotions about the subject on Thursday.
Running back David Montgomery said, “It’s still pretty sensitive … it’s a sensitive topic for the team and for me, myself. But, you know, it sucks, the verdict.”
His thoughts turned to "being scared to be who I am just because of the color of my skin and being able to go out here every day of my life and fearing if I was to get pulled over by a cop or if anything were to happen to me, I wouldn’t know if it’d be the last breath that I be taking.
“So it sucks, it’s scary,” he said. “We just got to keep fighting and challenging those who need to be challenged so that we can get it fixed and changed for the better of our future.”
Linebacker Danny Trevathan tweeted Thursday, “From the bottom of my heart I’m sorry Breonna. You deserve justice queen!”
Trevathan added a Malcolm X quote often attributed to a May 22, 1962, speech in Los Angeles: “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.”
Several NFL players have weighed in with their views advocating for Taylor, including Los Angeles Chargers running back Justin Jackson, who tweeted: “Breonna Taylor’s killers getting off scot free without even a trial is exactly the systemic rot that people are protesting for. All those protests, all the outcry for justice, and can’t even get a trial. Angry doesn’t even come close to how im feeling. #BreonnaTaylor”
Before speaking to reporters, Montgomery tweeted Thursday morning using another common hashtag related to Taylor: “Living a life walking on shattered glass, who knew that the color of my skin would be more dangerous than a gun. They fear not of man but the melanin in me. Heart broken and terrified by the verdict and the world my children will be brought into one day! #SorryBreonna”
Then in the afternoon, he responded to a Twitter user who told him to just “Play ball kid…”
“No, that’s not all I’m on this planet to do!” Montgomery replied in a tweet. “I’m here to effect change in a positive way and that is what I’m going to do whether you like it or not. You sound ignorant and belligerent and it shows the problem with this country! You value me playing ball more than life itself!”
During Patterson’s media session, he searched for positive takeaways despite his disappointment with the Taylor ruling.
“I just look to the people who are trying to help us and knowing the people who ain’t, just stay the (expletive) away, because we’re trying to build something here that’s going to separate us,” he said. "Because 2020 has already been a terrible year for everybody. People losing their jobs. Everything.
“It’s like there is so much going on on top of this police stuff that’s going on. So we’re trying to do better in 2020 and hopefully 2021 brings us great love and peace.”
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