Police departments struggle to recruit in 'defund police' era
LAPD's Deon Joseph reacts to the 'reckless' rhetoric of some politicians on 'The Story'
Los Angeles police officer Deon Joseph told "The Story" Monday NBA star LeBron James has not replied to his letter asking him to have a conversation about the fallout from the current defund the police movement.
DEON JOSEPH: The letter that I wrote that was used for the purpose of being open, and also in love and understanding, some social media types put tag lines on it that made it adversarial. As a result, I don't expect a response [from LeBron] any time soon. I'm still going to continue to voice my support for the honorable rule of the officers I work with as well as listen to the concerns of people that have concerns about police issues.
...
When you have leaders that instead of having knee-jerk reactions and creating knee-jerk policy to satisfy extreme people when they can take a step back. Sometimes when different major cities make policy changes, others follow. I'm glad to hear there's some cities saying, "You know what? People are dying in your communities." I know you want to promote racial equity when it comes to policing, but we don't want to promote racial inequity when it comes to crime and criminality. People of color are getting killed, they're getting raped, getting stabbed and shot. There's more disparity in that than anything else right now. For politicians not to care about that is just so disingenuous.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox