During a Juneteenth march in the capitol, Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal has revealed that he was once threatened by a police officer when he was pulled over "for no reason."
Beal was among the Wizards players who marched to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in West Potomac Park, and he shared his own experience with police violence to show his support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Speaking about the discrimination he has faced, he said that him, his wife, and one of his friends were pulled over by an officer in the middle of a highway around two years ago.
"He comes up to me and says, 'What if I fuck up your Monday and put you in a headlock and arrest you,'" Beal said of the incident. "Didn't do anything... But because I was a black athlete driving a nice vehicle, that's what he came over with." Making it clear that these instances of police brutality aren't isolated cases, he added, "It's everywhere, and we just have to stop being ignorant to the fact that it exists."
Beal marched alongside his teammates including John Wall and Thomas Bryant, while the Washington Mystics also made an appearance at the march. At one point, he spoke directly to a crowd to express how prevalent systemic racism is. "How does the black community grow when lives are taken from them unjustly without any consequences?" he asked.
See clips of Beal at the march with his teammates above.
