The viral “you’re next” tweet by LeBron James in April toward Ohio cop Nicholas Reardon may as well have been aimed at now-former Deputy Marshal Nate Silvester of Idaho.
A viral TikTok video by the latter man landed him in hot water with the Bellevue Marshal’s Office before an official termination of employment this week.
Mr. Silvester told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week that he is “the latest victim of cancel culture,” although Bellevue Mayor Ned Burns says otherwise.
“The decision was solely made by the command structure within the Bellevue Marshals office and was not influenced in any way by me or by the City Council,” Mr. Burns said in a statement, the New York Post reported.
Mr. Burns cited “continued policy violations” after a “last chance agreement” as the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
“None of my other videos that depicted me in my uniform or involving body camera footage, none of those mattered,” Mr. Silvester countered during his Fox interview Thursday evening. “They didn’t care about those. It wasn’t until my LeBron James TikTok struck a political nerve that they started to pay attention and complain about it and came up with forms of discipline.”
The impetus for the former cop’s video, which featured a fictional conversation with the basketball star, came after James framed a split-second decision by officer Reardon as a racial injustice.
Officer Reardon shot and killed Ma’Khia Bryant, a Black girl, on April 20 in Columbus, Ohio, as the teenager pulled a knife and appeared willing to stab another Black girl.
“You don’t care if a Black person kills another Black person, but you do care if a White cop kills a Black person, even if he’s doing it to save the life of another Black person?” Mr. Silvester asked in his viral video.
Mr. James ultimately deleted the “you’re next #accountability” tweet on April 21 and blamed his critics for spreading “hate.”
Cops are trolling LeBron on TikTok and I am 100% here for it https://t.co/zpY6ANOQHK pic.twitter.com/KluOzUjvkb
— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) April 25, 2021
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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