Ferguson ruling: Lakers’ Kobe Bryant calls for “serious legal system conversation”

"Demonstrators protest and block traffic as they take to the streets as a show of civil disobedience in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri on November 23, 2014.  Police erected barricades and businesses were boarded up November 23, 2014 as the clock ticked down to a grand jury decision on whether to indict a white officer for shooting dead an unarmed black teenager.    AFP PHOTO / Michael B.ThomasMichael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty Images"

“Demonstrators protest and block traffic as they take to the streets as a show of civil disobedience in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri on November 23, 2014. Police erected barricades and businesses were boarded up November 23, 2014 as the clock ticked down to a grand jury decision on whether to indict a white officer for shooting dead an unarmed black teenager. AFP PHOTO / Michael B.ThomasMichael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty Images”

It sounded chilling to hear Lakers guard Kobe Bryant say it.

But with a grand jury declining on Monday to indict white police officer Darren Wilson for his role in the death of unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown three months ago in Ferguson, MO, Bryant suggested a similar incident could happen again. After all, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot 2 1/2 years ago by George Zimmerman despite remaining unarmed and only wearing a hoodie in his Florida neighborhood.

“You can sit here and argue about it until we’re blue in the face and protest about it,” Bryant said following practice on Tuesday at the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo. “Until we have a serious legal system conversation, it’s going to keep on happening.”

Bryant already expressed his disgust with the ruling, tweeting on Tuesday morning that “the system enables young black men to be killed behind the mask of law.” Bryant expounded on those thoughts on Tuesday, saying there needs to be more “accountability” and “responsibility” placed on law enforcement officials.

How?

“What’s justifiable? What calls for legal action and what qualifies as the threshold in being able to use deadly force in that situation?,” Bryant asked rhetorically. “Those are higher conversations that need to be had.”

This hardly marks the first time Bryant spoke out on racial issues.

Bryant distanced himself in a New Yorker interview from the Miami Heat wearing a hoodie to symbolize Martin being shot by Zimmerman despite remaining unarmed while wearing a hoodie in his Florida neighborhood. But two days after after Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges, Bryant posted on his Instagram account disgust with the verdict by quoting civil rights activist Frederick Douglass.

Bryant also spoke at a rally run by the Trayvon Martin Foundation at Crenshaw High School in July, 2014 on the one-year anniversary of Zimmerman’s “not guilty” ruling. During that time, Bryant met and spoke with Martin’s parents, Sybrina and Tracy.

“That conversation was about the seed of it all for our young black youth and the seed of where things start with education,” Bryant said. “That is community support and having proper mentors in your life and providing that guidance early on in a person’s life. That’s a big thing that’s missing in our communities.”

Yet, amid Bryant’s outspokenness, he sounded unsure what impact his soundbites and tweets will actually make on this issue.

“I don’t know if it helps or not,” Bryant said. “But I have an opinion and I’m not bashful to use it. I don’t know if it helps or not. We all have opinions. If I feel a certain way about something, I’m more than willing to say it.”

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter and on Facebook. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com