Moments after the Toronto Raptors won the decisive Game 6 in last year’s NBA Finals, team president Masai Ujiri, while making his way to celebrate on the court, became involved in a physical altercation with an Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy. While the officer claimed that Ujiri was the aggressor, newly released body camera footage shows that the Sheriff’s Deputy initiated the altercation by shoving Ujiri twice. The Boundary was able to get in contact with the officer––who maintains his innocence––as his paid medical leave has left him with a great deal of free time.
“Look, clearly he was embellishing the contact,” said the police official who, over Zoom, appeared to be lounging on a beach chair in the sun. “These guys are soft nowadays,” said the officer between sips of a martini. “Back in the ‘80s that was a non-call.”
When asked to comment on what prompted the altercation, the Sheriff’s Deputy responded, “This isn’t a skin colour thing. This is about the real issue in society––racism against police. And what’s-his-name, that Raptors guy, he’s part of the problem. As soon as he saw my badge he had it out for me––it’s prejudice!”
Pundits are struggling to formulate an opinion on the true nature of this altercation. On one hand, the concrete video evidence shows the officer to be the aggressor, as he clearly shoved Ujiri with significant force while shouting expletives. On the other hand, according to fellow police officials in Alameda County, the Sheriff’s Deputy is an honourable man who, despite his prior conviction of felony insurance fraud, lives by a strict code of honesty. The one certainty is that justice is blind––which is perhaps why police continue to ignore what the rest of us see in the footage.
Photo Credit: The Toronto Star
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