LeBron James asks "Why doesn't America love us?" amidst protests against Floyd's death

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James continued to voice his support for the protests against the brutal killing of George Floyd. Last Monday, the 46-year-old unarmed African-American was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after he was strangled for several minutes by a police officer. LeBron James was one of the first athletes in the United States to react to Floyd's death after he brought attention to the incident by sharing a picture of Floyd being pinned down by the officer alongside a picture of former NFL star Colin Kaepernick kneeling to the national anthem.

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LeBron James tweet: Support for "peaceful" protests

On Sunday, LeBron James once again took to Twitter to share another message regarding the death of George Floyd. LeBron wrote: "Why doesn't America love us?" with hashtags in support of the protests. 

LeBron James followed his tweet above with another message. Using a quote from a writer, LeBron shared another powerful message as he questioned the recent events of police brutality. 

He further shared snippets of protests across the country where the protesters gathered in masses to "silently" and "peacefully" express their disapproval of the unjust killing of George Floyd by a police officer. 

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LeBron James on George Floyd: LeBron James tweet

Apart from his usual tweets, LeBron James has used his social media platforms to draw attention to the incident of police brutality and has shared a number of posts on Instagram and Twitter. Previously, he shared messages from the likes of American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, Killer Mike and Jalen Rose, who also expressed their support for the protests. 

LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick

As mentioned above, LeBron James first spoke regarding the death of Floyd when he shared the picture of Kaepernick and Floyd to his Instagram handle. James captioned his post: "Do You Understand Now? Or is it still blurred to you?" The 35-year-old's message was a reference to Colin Kaepernick's protest against racial injustice from 2016 when he repeatedly chose to kneel during the national anthem. At that time, Kaepernick was largely criticised for his actions as it was considered disrespectful to the the country. However, with recent events of racial profiling garnering national interest, Kaepernick's protest seems more relevant than ever. 

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George Floyd death

The 46-year-old died last Monday after being subdued by a police officer, Derek Chauvin for several minutes. The footage of the incident went viral on social media where Chauvin can be seen pinning Floyd on the floor by putting his knee on Floyd's neck. George Floyd was pronounced dead that night.

Subsequently, Chauvin and three other police officers were released by the Minneapolis PD. On Friday, Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The incident has prompted mass protests across several cities in the United States. In cities like Atlanta and Minneapolis, the protests turned into riots where police stations and police vans were vandalised and destroyed by the protesters. 

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