Carmelo Anthony: Don't Think People Understand 'Country Was Built on Protests'

Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony invoked history while defending the protests happening around the nation in defiance of the disproportionate police brutality faced by the black community, noting that the United States "was built on protest." 

Anthony made his remarks on his What's In Your Glass show with guest T.I. (10:25 mark):

"We're protesting, we're standing up for what we believe in, we're standing up for what's right, we're standing up for the injustices. I don't think people understand when they question why people are protesting today, I don't think they understand that this country was built on protests, at the end of the day. We protested to have this country to be what it is today, to where it's at today. And the people in power are abusing that."

The killing of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25 has helped spark protests across the country and world calling for an end to police violence and racial injustice. 

Officers were responding to an alleged forgery in progress when they removed Floyd from his car and placed him facedown on the street. Video of the arrest showed officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes despite Floyd telling him he could not breathe. Floyd died later at a local hospital. 

All four officers involved in the arrest were fired and Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, were charged Wednesday with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

To Anthony's point, protests including the March on Washington, Selma to Montgomery march, Mongomery bus boycott and sit-ins at segregated businesses during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s led to the signing of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which expanded and protected basic human rights to black Americans.

Anthony sees the current protests as simply following in the footsteps of these and other nation-changing protests throughout the history of the U.S.