Georges Laraque has discussed many times in the past his first-hand experience with racism growing up playing minor hockey in Quebec. The retired 12-year NHL veteran has also spoken up on specific incidents, such as the Akim Aliu story from earlier this season.
Laraque was a guest on Good Show with Scott MacArthur and his former Coyotes teammate Mike Zigomanis on Friday to share his thoughts on the ongoing protests.
“The good thing about what’s going on right now for the first time as I’ve seen for a long time is that it’s not just black people talking about it,” Laraque said. “It’s white people, people that are known publicly that are addressing the situation so now it becomes more a worldwide problem because they’re recognizing, they’re seeing it and they’re talking about how it should stop so that’s why the situation is sticking in more ground because now everybody’s talking about it.”
All four officers at the scene of where George Floyd was killed were fired and have been charged, but Laraque pointed out that not all law enforcement should be villainized.
“My brother is a police officer so it’s important for me to say that we can’t put all the cops in the same situation,” Laraque said. “They’re not all bad. The majority of cops are good. They’re there to save our lives. They risk their lives every single day every time they get a call. There is some rotten cops but the majority of them are good, so when people start doing protests against police officers, that’s wrong.”
For more of Laraque’s thoughts on the issue and some of his ideas for possible solutions, listen to the full interview below.
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