NBA legend Dennis Rodman pleaded with rioters to stop destroying businesses and their own cities, saying via social media, “We’re human beings, not f***ing animals.”
Rodman started the post addressing folks around the world, especially people “having a hard time” with the death of George Floyd, a black male who died after a police officer had his knee on the 46-year-old’s neck for over eight minutes during an arrest, as shown in viral video footage.
“I think that we should all understand the fact that it’s a new generation,” the basketball star said, noting the rioting sparked by the 1991 Rodney King incident. “Things started to happen, people were looting, starting fires, damaging people’s homes, businesses, stuff like that.”
“I think someone needs to come out and say, ‘Hey, guys, why are we looting? Why are we stealing? Why are we creating more issues, more problems? Let’s get to the head of what’s going on. This is a bad, bad situation,'” he continued. “But the fact that you’re gonna protest, protest in the right way. You don’t have to go and burn down things, steal things, burn things and stuff like that.”
“We’v got enough issues with this COVID,” Rodman said. “We’ve got enough issues, for this right here to happen, right now, it just adds to it. You’ve got people, big corporations closing stores because people are looting. Why? Why are we doing this, why are we hurting each other, again? Why aren’t we helping each other and holding each other’s hands and try to solve the problem?”
Rodman asked the younger generations to help the older guys by stopping the rioting. “Do not add to it,” he said, “we have too many issues right now. We can all come together.”
“Please understand … we have to live together,” the NBA great concluded. “We’re human beings, we’re not f***ing animals.”
Last week, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms struck a similar, though more fiery tone while addressing rioters in her own city.
“It’s enough,” Mayor Bottoms said during a press conference, Friday. “We are all angry. This hurts. This hurts everybody in this room. But what are you changing by tearing up a city? You’ve lost all credibility now. This is not how we change America. This is not how we change the world.”
“You are disgracing our city, you are disgracing the life of George Floyd and every other person who has been killed in this country,” Bottoms added, visibly angry. “We are better than this. We are better than this as a city. We are better than this as a country. Go home! Go home!”
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