Police Officer Mocks LeBron James' Ma’Khia Bryant Tweet In Viral TikTok Video

Police officer Nate Silvester has put NBA player LeBron James on blast in a viral TikTok skit criticizing a since-deleted tweet by James calling for the arrest of the police officer responsible for shooting Ma'Khia Bryant.

On April 21st, a day after both the controversial shooting of 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant and the announcement of Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict in the murder of George Floyd, LeBron James took to Twitter to express his feelings about both events, writing, "YOU'RE NEXT⌛ #ACCOUNTABILITY," and an image of officer Nicholas Reardon, involved in Bryant's shooting.

James' tweet inspired criticism from many on Twitter over the following days who saw it as a threat towards the police officer. Some even called for the NBA player's suspension from playing.

LeBron James would never survive one day in the shoes of law enforcement!

— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) April 24, 2021

Should the NBA SUSPEND LeBron James?

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) April 25, 2021

LeBron deleted the tweet that day, explaining his reasoning on Twitter that the original tweet was creating "more hate" but that his feelings stand.

I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate -This isn’t about one officer. it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY

— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 21, 2021

The deletion of the tweet wasn't enough for some, including TikToker and police officer Nate Silvester. On April 24th, Silvester posted a comedy skit to his feed, taken in full gear from the driver's side of his cruiser, openly mocking the tweet. In the video, Silvester acts as if he's politely telling a Black man outside his cruiser to stop stabbing another Black man, afraid to take immediate action. He then "receives a dispatch" from LeBron James about the situation and proceeds to have a discussion with the NBA player about how he should handle the situation. Throughout the video, Silvester implies that LeBron asks him the race of the people involved in the stabbing, and reminds LeBron that deadly force is "completely justified" given the situation. He ends the video by saying "Michael Jordan's the GOAT," hanging up the fake call, and letting the stabbing go on.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6954757011338759430

The video has gained over 3.8 million views and 530,000 likes on TikTok in three days and, additionally, hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter, where the video was shared numerous times. James has not responded to the video.