Minnesota Wild Take Heat After Launching 'We Support Law Enforcement' Merchandise

These days, life can be suffocating. Since the intersection of internet and media, almost everything is out in the open, and what is left in the dark can be unearthed with relative ease. Thus, it often feels as though everything is thrown under a microscope and devoid of the proper nuance, which has divided society far beyond what reasonable people can long stand. Therefore, a seemingly sensible thing like hosting a 'law enforcement' night at a hockey game would seem normal. However, times are not so simple.

The Minnesota Wild are taking a pounding online after launching merchandise for their Law Enforcement Appreciation Night. Why, you might ask? In 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic, George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, MN, a mere fifteen minute drive from the Xcel Energy Center. The team tweeted and deleted a promotion of 'We Support Law Enforcement' merchandise, and it was ill-received:

To launch merchandise openly endorsing the very police department that murdered a local civilian is, if nothing else, a grand lack of judgment. To get into the complicated intersectionality of law enforcement and race relations would do no good here, but the implications are inescapable.

As the Wild deleted the original post, its responses are also gone. As such, the internet dug up the team's original tweet on the incident and...

As someone who grew up with a deep respect for law enforcement, seeing such a foundational issue with their methods in policing has deeply troubled me in my adult life. The weight this series of events has put on public faith in trusted institutions is immeasurable.

For those affected by police violence, on the other hand, this is truly a life and death matter. A system-wide transformation has begun in the United States and all of western society, in order to even the odds so that future generations start out on an even playing field. Well, as even as we can make it. But as we all know, revolutions--cultural or military-- are seldom pretty.

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