Bucks head coach Doc Rivers speaks about ICE arrests in Chicago: ‘That’s not this country’
Milwaukee Bucks head coach and Chicago native Doc Rivers speaks about ICE activities in Chicago: ‘That’s not this country.’
CHICAGO – A day before arriving in his hometown of Chicago for a game between his Milwaukee Bucks and the Bulls at the United Center, Glenn “Doc” Rivers spoke about his team busing down for the game on Oct. 11 and said, “hopefully we get through the night, and not get arrested by ICE. And then we’ll be in good shape. Lot of brown people on our team.”
That set the stage for Rivers, on the eve of his 64th birthday, to express his disappointment and anger about the mass arrests by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chicago.
“It bothers me. I’m trying, I’m trying; I mean, it’s just awful what you watch and see, people getting zip tied. I mean, that’s not this country. That’s not what we’re about,” Rivers said in his pregame press conference Oct. 12 at the United Center, located on Chicago’s west side.
“I think the mayor’s (Brandon Johnson) done an amazing job with everything he says. You know, I think this is starting to separate us all, which I hate. This is not, you can be pro-civil rights or what’s right and not be, like, anti-white. And I think that’s what it’s starting to become in some ways. And it shouldn’t be. It really shouldn’t be. I would hope that if this was Ukrainian immigrants being detained that everyone on both races would fight for it. That’s wrong. It’s just wrong.
“I think every American is good with if there’s criminals on the street, we want to arrest the criminals. My dad (Grady) was a (Maywood) cop for Christ’s sakes. My dad would not be proud of this. I know that. My dad would have a major problem; I couldn’t imagine my dad going to work right now and have to protect ICE agents and doing what they’re doing. I couldn’t imagine him wanting to go to work. I think he’d call in sick. And it’s just so – did you walk around the city today? This is an amazing city.
“Riding down the elevator with a couple, I wish I could remember where they’re from, their daughter ran in the marathon and the couple was so proud and they were saying, man, this is the best marathon, the city is amazing, I’ve never been to this city, wow. And the dad says, but we were so scared, we thought there was civil unrest everywhere. And he was like, ‘where is it?’ It’s nowhere. It’s just sad. We hate it. We hate it. I’m from Chicago. I’m very prideful about this place, so I hate it.”
Since the beginning of October, ICE raids in and around Chicago have escalated – along with protests of its activities – resulting in President Donald Trump deploying members of the Texas National Guard to the city.Rivers is a Chicago native who grew up in Maywood, Illinois, a village just west of the city. Maywood is also located just blocks from Broadview, which is the location of an ICE processing facility and has been the site of continued protests.
“I had at least one girlfriend from Broadview, I’m sure of it,” Rivers said, adding a little levity to the session. “Yeah, it’s awful. I know it well. My brother (Grady Jr.) lives in Elmhurst. You gotta go from Maywood to Broadview to drive through it. Again, it’s the same thing. And it almost feels like it’s intentional, like they’re trying to create unrest. It wasn’t here, and now it’s here.
“It’s just, there’s gotta be a solution. I mean, protest is legal. You should be able to protest, and I think it’s being made violent in some ways, so I don’t know. Antifa? Does anyone know what that is? I actually looked today. I really did. I actually looked it up and there were 15 different answers for it. Yet we have all these other groups. The Proud Boys, no one’s going after (them). It’s just, this is getting sickening.
“I’m going to say this the last time and then move back to basketball. This should be about the morality of our country and not about the race. This has nothing to do with black and white. Black and white should be grabbing arms together on this one and fighting against this.”