Jaylen Brown Discusses ICE, Minnesota Protests Amid Fatal Shootings

Boston Celtics superstar Jaylen Brown is in the midst of an MVP-caliber season and was recently named an All-Star Game starter for the first time in his career.

In the wake of two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in January in Minneapolis involving federal agents, Brown discussed the situation.

Brown’s comments come days after 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti was killed by a Border Patrol agent and weeks following the killing of 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross.

The pair of shootings have occurred amid a massive immigration enforcement operation and subsequent protests in Minnesota.

Brown is the National Basketball Players Association (NBAPA) vice president.

“I think I try to use my platform, as an athlete, to make situations that need a little bit more attention, for us to be able to focus on,” the 29-year-old said, according to a report by Celtics Wire’s Justin Quinn. “Obviously, basketball is entertainment. It’s important, but there’s other things going on in the world that are more important.”

President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration tactics have sparked nationwide protests that have continued following the shootings of Good and Pretti.

“The statement that we released from the NBPA, we send our condolences to the families who recently have had their losses and our players, we don’t stand for it,” Brown said. “We demand accountability, and we think that there needs to be some improvement in the tactics, the profiling, or whatever is going on. It’s a lot, you know, for everyone to see, for the people who are in Minnesota, who are having these experiences, and all over the U.S, not just Minnesota, even here in Boston.”

The five-time All-Star added that everything going on is “a lot to encapsulate in words.”

“I just send my condolences, and the players as well, the Player’s Association we send our condolences as well,” Brown said.