Social Media Campaign Calls For LeBron James To Sit Out In Protest Of Tamir Rice Decision

After a grand jury decided not to charge the police officers who shot 12-year-old Cleveland Native Tamir Rice, a social media campaign is calling on Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James to take action.

Activist and writer Tariq Touré began using the Twitter hashtag #NoJusticeNoLeBron asking James to miss games in protest and the hashtag has grown in popularity.

James spoke about the decision for the first time on Tuesday, citing his busy schedule and inability to fully follow the decision. “For me, I’ve always been a guy who’s took pride in knowledge of every situation that I’ve ever spoke on,” James said. “And to be honest, I haven’t really been on top of this issue. So it’s hard for me to comment. I understand that any lives that [are] lost, what we want more than anything is prayer and the best for the family, for anyone. But for me to comment on the situation, I don’t have enough knowledge about it.”

He would continue to elaborate, but maintained that the issue was bigger than him.

“First of all, I think I’ve been very outspoken about what I believe in,” James said. “What hits home for me, what I am [knowledgeable] about. There’s been so many more issues that’s gone on that I haven’t spoken about,” he said. “There’s been the San Bernardino massacre, there’s been guys going in movie theaters, shooting up movie theaters, there’s been other issues. Those are not something that … I don’t have much knowledge of so I don’t speak about it. So for me … if I feel like it’s something that I have a lot of knowledge about [I’ll add my voice to the issue], because I don’t like to speak when I don’t know about it.”

“But I think the most important thing that we all need to understand, the most important thing, this issue is bigger than LeBron,” he continued. “This issue is bigger than me; it’s about everyone. And gun violence and tragedies and kids losing lives at a young age, some way, somehow we need to understand that that matters more than just an individual.”

Photo: LeBron James during the 2015 NBA Finals

Article by Joe Kozlowski