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Officer who went viral for mocking LeBron James is suspended following complaints — but a GoFundMe to benefit him has drawn in nearly $200,000

  The Idaho police officer who went viral after mocking NBA star LeBron James has reportedly been suspended following complaints. James came...

 The Idaho police officer who went viral after mocking NBA star LeBron James has reportedly been suspended following complaints.


James came under fire for posting a photo of the officer involved in the police shooting of Ohio teen Ma'Khia Bryant, captioning it, "YOU'RE NEXT. #ACCOUNTABILITY."

What's a brief history here?

Earlier this month, Officer Nate Silvester of the Bellevue Marshal's Office in Idaho turned heads with his impersonation of an officer phoning James for direction on how to handle a police call.

Silvester's satire naturally went viral and racked up millions of views across the internet.

As previously reported by Blaze Media:

In the video, Silvester can be seen arriving at a fictional scene and calling dispatch for advice.

"Dispatch, I've arrived at that disturbance," he says. "Will you have LeBron call my cellphone right away, please? Thank you."
While awaiting the call from "LeBron," Silvester can be heard telling an off-screen person to "put down that knife."

"Stop stabbing him," Silvester commands.

"LeBron" returns Silvester's call, and the officer says, "LeBron, hey, yeah, it's me again. Listen, I'm out here at this disturbance call, and there's a guy trying to stab another guy with a knife. What do you think I should do?"

After a pause in the fake conversation, Silvester asks, "Why does that matter?"

"OK, well, they're both black," he continues. "One guy is trying to stab another guy with a knife. Deadly force is completely justified."

After another pause, he adds, "So, you don't care if a black person kills another black person — but you do care if a white cop kills a black person, even if he's doing it to save the life of another black person? I mean, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but then again, you're really good at basketball, so I guess I'll take your word for it."

He concludes the conversation, "Michael Jordan's the GOAT [greatest of all time]. I gotta go."

Silvester then turns to the fictional suspects and says, "Sorry, guys, you're on your own. Good luck."

What are the details?

Silvester recently appeared in a YouTube video, where he revealed that he was suspended following the original video.

The Bellevue Marshal's Office also issued a statement in response to the video.

"The Bellevue Marshal's Office is aware of the extreme controversy regarding Deputy Marshal Silvester's viral TikTok," the statement read. "The statements made do NOT represent the Bellevue Marshal's Office. The Bellevue Marshal's Office always demands that our Deputies engage with our citizens in a friendly and professional manner. This is NOT how we expect our Deputies to act on duty or use city time. This is a personnel issue that is being dealt with internally."

In his video, Silvester said that he was on break when he filmed the video and did not use city time to mock the NBA star.

Following his suspension, Silvester's best friend launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for any related loss of income that may have stemmed from the suspension.

At the time of this reporting, the page has received more than $193,000 in donations.

In the video, Silvester said that he plans to use the money to push back against the anti-police narrative in much of the media. He did not specify how he would make such an effort.

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