Michael Jordan donates $2 million to deal with police race relations
CHARLOTTE - Michael Jordan has donated $2 million to organizations to help ease racial tensions between police and communities, media outlets reported Monday.
ESPN website The Undefeated first reported the details. ESPN shared the story on Twitter later.
"As a proud American, a father who lost his own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a black man, I have been deeply troubled by the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement and angered by the cowardly and hateful targeting and killing of police officers," Jordan was quoted.
"I can no longer stay silent."
— ESPN (@espn) July 25, 2016
BREAKING: Michael Jordan donates $2M to help community-police relations. His words: https://t.co/smuoZ5Lp2d
Jordan said he can no longer "stay silent" about the situation.
"We need to find solutions that ensure people of color receive fair and equal treatment AND that police officers – who put their lives on the line every day to protect us all – are respected and supported," The Undefeated reported Jordan said.
Two organizations - the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s newly established Institute for Community-Police Relations and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund - will each get $1 million.
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News of the donation came Monday as the city of Baton Rouge prepared to bury a police officer killed in the line of duty in an ambush that also claimed the lives of another police officer and a sheriff's deputy. The shooting was a week after protests took over streets in Baton Rouge following the police shooting death of Alton Sterling, a black man, in North Baton Rouge.
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