'I won't be silent': Serena Williams speaks out in powerful Facebook post on police killings

'I won't be silent': Tennis star Serena Williams has spoken out about friction between law enforcement and the black community in the US
Getty Images for USTA
Hatty Collier28 September 2016

Serena Williams has spoken out against police killings of African Americans in the US, writing on Facebook: “I won’t be silent.”

The tennis star wrote that she recently found herself feeling wary of law enforcement as she travelled past a patrol vehicle in a car being driven by her nephew.

The 35-year-old had asked her 18-year-old nephew to drive the car so she could work during the journey.

“I remembered that horrible video of the woman in the car when a cop shot her boyfriend,” she wrote, referencing Philando Castile, whose girlfriend broadcast the aftermath of his killing by police on Facebook Live in July.

“I even regretted not driving myself. I would never forgive myself if something happened to my nephew. He’s so innocent. So were all ‘the others’”.

“Why did I have to think about this in 2016?” she wrote. “Have we not gone through enough, opened so many doors, impacted billions of lives?

“But I realised we must stride on – for it’s not how far we have come but how much further still we have to go.”

Williams is the latest high-profile athlete to speak out about friction between law enforcement and the black community in the US.

The tennis champion said she checked her nephew was not speeding so they would not get pulled over by the police, having regretted not driving herself.

Williams quoted Martin Luther King Jr in the Facebook post, writing: "There comes a time when silence is betrayal."

She added: "I won't be silent".

Her comments come amid a wave of anti-police brutality protests after it is said some 214 black people were killed by US police this year.

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