- The Washington Times - Sunday, May 31, 2020

A protester accused of smashing windows in a Los Angeles residential neighborhood picked the wrong car.

Former Cleveland Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith beat up a man who allegedly broke the window on his parked vehicle amid protests over the death of George Floyd, as shown on video released Sunday by TMZ.

Smith, 34, a free agent who played in the NBA for 15 years and won the 2016 NBA Championship with Cleveland, later posted a video explaining that “one of these mother**ing white boys didn’t know where he was going and broke my f**ing window on my truck.”



“I chased him down and whupped his ass,” said Smith in the video. “He broke my window. This ain’t no hate crime. I ain’t got no problem with nobody who ain’t got a problem with me.”

Plenty of those reacting to the post cheered Smith, with comments such as, “J.R. is my hero!” and “Good. Maybe if more people surprised these vandals with a beating this would stop.”

Los Angeles and other major U.S. cities have been besieged for days by violent protests and rioting, spurred by the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.

 

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• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.

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