Detroit Lions cancel practice to recognize and protest Jacob Blake shooting
ALLEN PARK, Mich. (FOX 2) - The Detroit Lions canceled practice Tuesday to take the opportunity to recognize and protest the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisc.
The organization gathered outside in the afternoon with a white board that had messages written on it such as, "The world can't go on," and "We won't be silent!!"
Lions coach Matt Patricia opened the team's morning meeting by allowing players to share their thoughts on the shooting. Duron Harmon was the first to speak.
"While some people think we are just football players, this league 67% - two thirds - of these players are African American. Jacob Blake could have been anybody's brother, cousin, uncle, friend - it could've been them. And it wasn't okay," he said.
Blake, a Black man, was shot multiple times, apparently in the back, by police in Wisconsin over the weekend. Just today, his father said the 29-year-old has "eight holes" in his body and is paralyzed from the waist down, a diagnosis that the family doesn't know is permanent or not yet.
Police in Kenosha, a city of about 100,000 in between Milwaukee and Chicago, said they were responding to a call about a domestic dispute when they encountered Blake on Sunday.
The shooting in broad daylight was captured on cellphone video that quickly spread on social media. The man who said he made the cellphone video, 22-year-old Raysean White, said he saw Blake scuffling with three officers and heard them yell, "Drop the knife! Drop the knife!" before the gunfire erupted. He said he didn't see a knife in Blake's hands.
Police did not say whether Blake was armed or why police opened fire, they released no details on the domestic dispute, and they did not immediately disclose the race of the three officers at the scene.
Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing the family, said three of Blake's sons - aged 3, 5 and 8 - were in the car at the time of the shooting.
The shooting has ignited new protests over racial injustice in several cities. It comes three months after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police set off demonstrations around the United States and touched off a wider reckoning on race.
"I want you to document. The Detroit Lions will be for change. We won't be silent," Harmon said. "We will play football and we will do everything we can to win football games but we will do everything we can to create change as well."
Trey Flowers also spoke, saying, "We can't be silent. We can't stay silent. It can not be us going through our regular day. So today we stand unified."
Danny Shelton tweeted photos of their messages, as did the official Detroit Lions Twitter account.
The players continued to discuss Blake's shooting and shared their personal experiences regarding race in the locker room.
Patricia said he is proud of the players and hopes they inspire other people and teams in the NFL to take a stand for social justice.
“I challenge everybody to do this, everybody in the league to do this,” Patricia said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report