Charles Barkley slammed on social media for defending police in Breonna Taylor case

NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is facing a lot of backlash on social media for essentially siding with the police in the Breonna Taylor case. Unlike the likes of LeBron James and most other NBA athletes who have publicly expressed their dissent at the Kentucky Grandy Jury decision, Barkley claimed that the death of Breonna Taylor cannot be put in the same conversation as George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery because it was Taylor's boyfriend who shot at the police personnel first. 

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Breonna Taylor case summary

On March 13, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old medical technician was shot to death in her home in Louisville in a police raid gone wrong. Police officers who entered her apartment unannounced were forced to fire after Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker shot at the police. Taylor became the unfortunate victim of the crossfire between Walker and police officers. Her death led to major unrest in the United States, with protesters demanding justice for her killing. #SayHerName was used by athletes and celebrities to remember her and raise awareness about her case.

Earlier this week, the decision made by the Kentucky Grand Jury with respect to her case was subject to a lot of criticism. The jury decided not to move forward with the charges of murder against any of the police officers, instead charging officer Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment in connection to the raid. State Attorney General Daniel Cameron explained the jury decision in a press conference where he said the police did not use a no-knock warrant to enter Taylor's apartment and that they fired back only after Walker fired the first shot. The police justification was considered sufficient by the jury to disregard the charges of murder. 

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Charles Barkley on Breonna Taylor ruling

Charles Barkley appeared to be in an agreement with the provided justification. On Thursday's episode of NBA on TNT, the former 76ers star said: "It's just bad the young lady lost her life, but we do have to take into account that her boyfriend did shoot at the cops and shot a cop. So, like I said, even though I'm really sorry she lost her life, I don't think we can just put this in the same situation as George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery."

Barkley also lambasted calls on social media to abolish and defund the police. The NBA analyst claimed that police reforms and prison reforms are still necessary for society despite the growing calls of social injustice.

I'm like wait a minute who are Black people supposed to call? Ghostbusters? We need police reform," Charles Barkley said.

Charles Barkley's stance was supported by fellow analyst Shaquille O'Neal, who said the police are authorised to use no-knock warrants in several states. Despite calls for murder, there has been nothing to show intent for murder, which is crucial to implicate somebody on such charges, Shaq asserted. 

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However, social media seems to disagree with Charles Barkley's reasoning in the Breonna Taylor case. Amid the outrage against Barkley for his comments, fans have also called for TNT to cancel Barkley's post-game NBA analysis show. 

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(Image Credits: AP, Twitter)