NEW ORLEANS, La. – 5 days before Georg Floyd was tragically murdered during an encounter with Minnesota police officers, UNO Athletic Director, Tim Duncan, reflects on an encounter with Massachusetts law enforcement.
Duncan says that he and his wife were walking to a store near their Newton home when multiple squad cars pulled up to stop them.
Guns were drawn because they fit a profile of a murder suspect.
“It’s not okay. It’s not okay that just because I’m a tall black man walking one block from his house that I’m pulled over and say I fit a profile of a murder suspect because he was tall. I understand the police have to do their job, but to roll down on me guns drawn when I’m walking on a Wednesday afternoon with my wife is uncalled for.”
Duncan released this video Monday night after he told his student-athletes about the encounter.
He also released this statement saying, “We have to fight institutional racism and racism of any kind.
“We at New Orleans Athletics hold diversity, equity, and inclusion as core values and that they stand against racism and bigotry.”
Duncan wants his student-athletes to know that it can happen to anyone, regardless of skin color.
“I wanted them to understand that this doesn’t just happen to what is portrayed as thugs on television. It can happen to anyone, to your athletic director and to anyone of color. That’s not right. That’s racism. That’s systemic. That’s institutional racism that we have to fight against, and I promise that I will do better.”