Saturday night in Minnesota players for state’s WNBA Team, the Lynx, took a collective stance to honor the lives of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling who were shot and killed in separate incidents by police officers last week as well as the five fallen Dallas Police Officers.
Players emerged wearing shirts that read, “Change starts with us — Justice & Accountability” on the front while the back honors Philando Castile, Alton Sterling and the Dallas Police Department. According to ESPN four off-duty Minneapolis police officers, working security for the game, abandoned their posts in response to the stance with the full support of their police chief.
“I commend them for it,” Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Minneapolis Police Federation said, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Prior to the start of the game team captain Maya Moore addressed the teams decision to wear the shirts.
“If we take this time to see that this is a human issue and speak out together, we can greatly decrease fear and create change,” the Lynx’s Maya Moore said prior to Saturday’s game. “Tonight we will be wearing shirts to honor and mourn the losses of precious American citizens and to plead for change in all of us.”
At the time of writing MPLS PD had not issued an official statement or collective decision to a unified decision to boycott future Lynx games.