The Update Desk: Wondering... (v133)

Two years ago - May 23, 2018 - I published my 133rd Wondering on Wednesday post. The bulk of it had to do with sports, and ratings, and protests during the national anthem. And it included what was, at that time, a very painful bit of wondering to close out the post.

Wondering so exhausting, I'm -- well, I'm exhausted. And sick. And sick tired of this stuff.

How, I wonder - how can it be possible that a person who is parked across two handicapped spaces in an empty drug store parking lot at 2AM ends up Tased, screamed at, put on the ground, arrested for being physically aggressive, scratched and bruised by four police officers and two police sergeants? In 2018? In an American city?

Well, it happens, you and I both know, because the guy who chose to park badly is black. He's black, he's young, he's wearing a chain, and did I mention he's black? It's ridiculous. It's embarrassing. It's shameful.

I didn't mention in that post that the gentleman who was Tased, screamed at, put on the ground, arrested for being physically aggressive, scratched and bruised by four police officers and two police sergeants was Sterling Brown, at the time a rookie for the Milwaukee Bucks NBA franchise.

According to this WaPo article, which was linked in my original post, Brown issued a statement after the incident that said, in part.

Black men shouldn’t have to have their guard up and instantly be on the defensive when seeing a police officer, but it’s our reality and a real problem. There must be mutual respect and both sides have to figure out how to accomplish this.

There are no easy solutions to this problem, but there are strides that can be made to create change. I will do my part in helping to prevent similar incidents from happening to the minority community in the future.

And now, it seems, there's an update on this from a few months ago, that I missed. 

Brown, who's the son of a Chicago-area policeman, sued the city of Milwaukee in June of 2018 and eventually rejected an offer to settle everything for $400,000, saying that it wasn't about the money. Speaking at the Racine Correctional Institution, where his team played a game and spoke with inmates, he said

Right now, it's a long process, it's still ongoing. They tried to throw a few dollar amounts at me just to get me to shut up, and I really couldn't take it because I'm doing it for myself anymore, I'm doing it for everybody else around.

Later, he told ESPN, 

They tried to get me to settle for it. I feel like it was just a slap in the face, and I can't go into too many details, but there's other things that we're trying to push. The money is not the biggest concern. It's not a priority for me. It's the other things involved, so we're going to keep fighting.

There's going to be more to come on this one, it seems. I'll try to pay more attention. And I'll stick by how I ended the original post two years ago.

And so I have to ask, does anyone really wonder why athletes protest during the national anthem?