How #BLM Beclowned Pro Sports Using Domestic Abuser Jacob Blake

We live in fast-moving times. So fast that, for many, there is little time to gather facts and then render an informed decision. So many react instantly to please the herd, going along to get along with the cool kids. Only to discover that rushed justice is no justice at all.

When the media first alerted us to a Jacob Blake he was the hero of a drama played out in once-sleepy Kenosha, Wisconsin. Initial reports described him as a father of three who was playing “peacemaker” in a domestic dispute when he was shot seven times in front of his children by racist police. 

His fiancée said he was gunned down “for nothing”. There was a very brief snippet of video used to support this story.

Instantly the forces of Black Lives Matter sprang to action. Using their crafted narrative of (to quote Michelle Obama) “a never-ending list of innocent people of colour” gunned down by police, they alerted their networks to exploit the moment.

Gullible professional sports leagues and athletes gladly complied, shutting down games and boycotting practices in solidarity with the stricken Blake who, the media told us, asked his father from his hospital bed, “Why did they shoot me, Daddy?” Speeches from NBA star LeBron James (who is black) to NFL QB Matthew Stafford (white) decried the alleged racism and endless brutality against blacks. 

NBA legend Doc Rivers, whose father was a cop, blamed Trump, telling the nation “We’re the ones getting killed. We’re the ones getting shot.” (In 2019, 94 percent of black murder victims were killed by other African Americans.) 

Presidential candidate Joe Biden gushed in praise of the athletes. ”This moment demands moral leadership. And these players answered by standing up, speaking out, and using their platform for good. Now is not the time for silence."

Soon, every league, sports organization and media partner was extolling #BLM and its enlightened work by putting its name on jerseys, playing surfaces and in broadcasts. To say they were all-in understates the meaning of all-in. Even as #BLM and its prophets seemed to be at the centre of widespread violence, looting and murder across the nation, their cheerleaders in sports clung to the provided script.

Too bad. In their zeal they ignored a few nagging questions about Mr. Blake that might well have saved them their credibility with fans. Which today lies in rubble.

(Warning: graphic details) According to a victim report, Blake entered his girlfriend’s residence at 6 AM on May 3, digitally penetrated her against her will as she lay in bed with one of her children, sniffed his finger and said, “Smells like you’ve been with other men”. He then stole her car keys and fled the scene. The distraught woman said that Blake— who already had disorderly conduct arrests involving pointing guns— beat her up every six months or so “when he drinks heavily”. 

Charges were later dropped when— as often happens in sexual assault cases— the woman declined to go forward with the case (she’s now being represented by Blake’s own lawyer).

He was at it again when the 911 call came in last week as Blake defied a restraining order at this woman’s home. He resisted arrest, putting the cop in a headlock. Despite being tasered twice, and after telling police he had a knife, Blake fled to the car (not his own) where his kids were. As he refused yet another request to halt he reached into the car and was shot. (In 13 of the 14 police shootings of unarmed blacks in 2019 the victim refused to cooperate or tried to flee.)

A sexual abuser. A violent punk. A gun waver. That’s the upstanding citizen the NFL decided, in haste, to lionize. As did the NBA, MLB and, eventually, the NHL. (You can see “Smells like you’ve been with other men” as LeBron’s next NIKE ad campaign, no?) To celebrate this creep downtown Kenosha was burned, businesses destroyed, at least two people killed and $2 million raised.

It bore the earmarks of the notorious George Floyd death in Minneapolis. First media claims there said that a cop choked Floyd using a knee on his neck. Radical Minnesota AG Keith Ellison immediately cried Racism (one of the four arresting cops was black, another Asian American) clamped down on the evidence while the cops were charged with murder. 

Only weeks later was it seen in body-cam footage that Floyd resisted arrest from the moment his veering car was stopped (likely knowing that an arrest would send the convicted felon back to prison). Toxicology reports also showed enough fentanyl in his system to kill a normal person— the likely cause of his “I can’t breathe” protestations from the instant he was arrested. His lungs were swollen from the drug.

In the interim between Floyd’s death and release of the body-cam footage the “gentle giant” Floyd narrative— stoked by corporate sponsors— was used to politicize sports dressing rooms and front offices across the continent— even as BLM and others burned Minneapolis neighbourhoods and businesses to the ground. 

As had happened in the case of the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” hoax perpetrated in the Michael Brown death in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Witnesses there later recanted their claim to the Obama DOJ that Brown was surrendering. In fact he was charging a cop to take his gun. 

BLM burned Ferguson for that one, too. (“Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” is still a rallying cry for the looters in Portland, Seattle and elsewhere.)

Not to forget another concocted story that police had gunned down a suspect in Minneapolis last week when he had, in fact, committed suicide — which was captured on surveillance video.  But LeBron’s pals still razed the Target, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Nordstrom in the Twin Cities.

When confronted with the facts BLM defenders lamely replied that defying a restraining order, abusing a woman, drawing a weapon, wrestling with cops and fleeing are not reason to shoot a person. Perhaps, but when you are unaffected by two taser applications, put a policeman in a headlock while carrying a knife you’re making a big ask that he let you go to the next phase of the encounter. 

As of this writing none of the leagues that spent last week wallowing in Blake worship has acknowledged his real story. They’re locked in. But the public (outside the looters) is saying “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”  Having contrary opinions in private life is something fans can grudgingly accept. Portraying fans as white supremacists and murderers— and expecting them to buy tickets and merchandise— is an entirely different item. 

We know one thing. Former NFL running back Ray Rice must be some pissed. He viciously assaulted a woman and his football career was over. #JacobBlakeAmericanRapist sexually assaults a woman, steals her car and kids, pulls a knife— and @NFL wants to put him on a postage stamp.

It’s perhaps a good thing for these saps that Covid-19 will keep fans from going to games in all sports. Via empty seats and collapsed revenues they would otherwise find that the public is no longer buys what it’s selling.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his next book Personal Account with Tony Comper will be available on BruceDowbigginBooks.ca this fall.