Patriots QB Cam Newton shares his thoughts on Breonna Taylor case
Many athletes and public figures articulated their outrage with the grand jury’s decision in Kentucky to not arrest any officers in the killing of Breonna Taylor.
Taylor was killed in March during a botched police raid and it led to wide-scale demonstrations and protests. NBA players and public figures around the country advocated for months that the officers who murdered Taylor in her home should should be arrested.
After a 20-minute conversation with reporters on Thursday, New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton added his input on the situation. Newton was calm, collective and a had a lot to say about the final decision in the case.
I hate to be so bland; you just have to side-eye certain situations as an African-American sometimes; well, a lot of times here recently at this country. I believe it was Lamar [Jackson] who just said, this is the land of the free, but in many times than just once have I not felt that that statement applied to people that looked like me. No matter if they’re a citizen, no matter if they’re a police officer, no matter if they’re rich, poor, whatever. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. And at the end of the day, it’s just all about accountability. No matter what your title is, before all or at the end of the day, you’re still a human being. And from one human to another, no matter how you look, no matter how you act, no matter how you whatever; I teach my children to treat everybody with respect, just as it was taught to me. Those are the things that were instilled in me. And just to go out and knowing that you have a big target on yourself when your hair looks the way my hair looks, when, you know, the confidence looks the way my confidence looks, the way I dress, the way I carry myself. That’s in essence, a turn-off to so many different people.
But at the end of the day, what makes your way right and what makes my way right, or what makes my way wrong, and what makes your way wrong. At the end of the day, as human beings, we have to do right and better about each other. And when the Breonna Taylor situation happens, and you see the outcry of Americans just in disbelief, you’re speechless. But the sacrifices of the Colin Kaepernicks, the Eric Reids, so many different players who have been, in essence, boycotted or kind of blackballed or blackmailed from their specific sport, it makes you kind of question or go back to what I just said, side-eye the whole situation.
It’s like, ‘Well, what’s really going on here?’ I know that’s a lot that I just said; but at the end of the day, I just pray that we all find it in our heart to do better. And no matter what happens on that specific case – because it’s out of pretty much everybody’s hands, outside of the necessary people – let this be like a situation that we all can empathize with.
No matter if you’re going to a grocery store, no matter if you’re going to a gas station. Let’s just do right by people. Us humans alike. So I think that’s pretty much how I feel, that’s my stance; and I just know that we all have a due diligence on this earth to do right by mankind; and I’m just one of those servants that wants to uphold my end of the bargain.
