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Mainstream media keeps asking Charles Barkley for his opinions on race relations in America and Barkley keeps offering them.
On an interview set to air on Wednesday, days after Barkley set off a bit of a media firestorm by calling rioters in Ferguson “scumbags”, he was asked for his opinion on whether the death of Eric Garner in New York should be considered a homicide. His response:
“I don’t think that was a homicide. I think the cops were trying to arrest him and they got a little aggressive,” Barkley said of the July arrest that led to Garner’s death. “I think excessive force — something like that — but to go straight to murder?
“Brooke, when the cops are trying to arrest you, if you fight back, things go wrong. I don’t think they were trying to kill Mr. Garner. He was a big man and they were trying to get him down.”
Barkley also had this to say about the relationship between police force and race.
“The notion that white cops are out there just killing black people is ridiculous. It’s flat-out ridiculous,” Barkley said on CNN, which is owned by the same company, Turner, that employs Sir Charles.
“I challenge any black person to make that point. Cops are absolutely awesome. They’re the only thing in the ghetto (separating this place) from this place being the wild, wild west.”
Later on Wednesday, a grand jury chose to not indict the officer involved in the death of Eric Gardner.
Between these recent comments and Kenny Smith’s open letter to Barkley on the subject of race, there is sure to be some interesting dialogue between those two to follow.
