Russell Westbrook says enough is enough after Terrence Crutcher shooting

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook reacted emotionally following the shooting of Terrence Crutcher in Tulsa, adding to an ongoing conversation.

Much of the discussion in the sports world the last few weeks has centered around Colin Kaepernick and his protest of police practices in the United States. Kaepernick has sat or knelt for the national anthem at all San Francisco 49ers games this year. It has begun a conversation that has gone on throughout America for much of the last year.

The reality is the conversation has been ongoing from all the countless names — from Freddie Gray to Eric Garner to Alton Sterling to on and on and (unfortunately) on — who have died after encounters with law enforcement recently. The ability to record these encounters with cell phones has made them more poignant and led to more outrage and frustration nationally.

The latest came Monday when Tulsa, Okla., police released video of Terrence Crutcher being tased and shot by four police officers with his arms up while trying to tend to his broken down car. The video is shocking in itself.

And with all this background, athletes are more cognizant and aware of society’s ills and the obvious and unfortunate commonality between all these victims. They are all black men.

This hits athletes harder than most. In the NBA, especially, the majority of players are black. This issue hits especially close to home.

And the frustration is surely mounting.

Oklahoma City all star Russell Westbrook took to Instagram with a simple image of the hashtag for #TerenceCrutcher and a poignant message that expresses the fear he and surely many black men in this country are feeling right now.

The investigation into what happened with Terence Crutcher is still ongoing.

The Tulsa Police Department released the video after consulting with Crutcher’s family and his attorney. There are promises to investigate the matter further, according to CNN. But no one can fault the black community for being a little bit skeptical. There has been so much injustice done to that community by the police in American history. There is a wide gap to bridge. A very wide gap.

And this frustration is a sign of it. So too is Kaepernick’s protest. So too is the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

It is unclear what else Russell Westbrook will do. Many believe NBA players will join Kaepernick with some form of protest during the national anthem when their season begins, whether it is kneeling during the anthem or raising their fists as others have done.

The NBA has typically been progressive on these issues. LeBron James, Derrick Rose and others wore “I can’t breathe” shirts over their warmups after Eric Garner was choked out by police officers while being arrested for selling loose cigarettes. But it is unclear what the league’s response will be.

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Westbrook, though, has a clear response to the issues facing this latest incident with law enforcement. The frustration from some of the nation’s most visible African Americans, those most affected by these continued incidents, is continuing to boil over.