Chances are you probably weren’t anxious to hear Charles Barkley weigh in on the recent unrest between the black community and law enforcement — most notably the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, followed by the tragedy that left five police officers dead in Dallas.
Regardless, the NBA Hall of Famer joined ESPN’s Dan Le Batard Show on Tuesday and offered some thoughts on the recent events. As was expected, Barkley didn’t exactly hold back in offering up some honest thoughts.
“The cops have made some mistakes, but that doesn’t give us the right to riot and shoot cops. We need the cops, especially in the black community. We as black people, we’ve got to do better. We never get mad when black people kill each other, which that has always bothered me … I’ve always said if we as black people want more respect, we have to give each other respect. You can’t demand respect from white people and the cops if you don’t respect each other. We’ve got to do better as black people.
“The cops have made some mistakes, but there’s a lot of blame to go around. But I’m not going to get on TV and yell like all these other idiots.”
Le Batard seemed to strongly disagree with some of Barkley’s arguments and challenged them, prompting the two to go back and forth a bit. You can watch that in the full video above.
