Shaquille O’Neal (second from right) and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca (left) attend the 2nd Annual California Gold Star Awards dinner gala and auction at the Disneyland Hotel on April 5, 2003, in Anaheim, Calif. The gala salutes outstanding law enforcement members and other citizens of California. (Robert Mora/Getty Images)

Black people who desperately long to be police officers confuse me. They always have. Clearly, the good-ole-boy structure of the police force isn’t designed for black people. And yes, I get the idea of black people who want to be different and turn the force around so that they alone can change the perception of cops, but, yeah, good luck with that.




Anyway, a 7-foot-tall NBA Hall of Fame center with enough money to buy his own police force who longs to be a police officer is just stupid, but no one has ever argued that Shaquille O’Neal is the sharpest pencil in the box. The TNT analyst has announced that he plans to run for sheriff in 2020. And while it’s unclear whether he will run for sheriff in Atlanta or Florida, where he owns homes, he is adamant that he will run for sheriff somewhere.

“This is not about politics. This is about bringing people closer together. You know, when I was coming up, people love[d] and respected the police, the deputies,” Shaq told 11 Alive. “And I want to be the one to bring that back, especially in the community I serve.”


Good luck with that. “All Lives Matter” O’Neal has been one of the leaders of the “Black people wouldn’t be killed by police if they respected the cops” movement; read here and here. But, whatever, I’m sleep tho.

Read more at 11 Alive.