Lebron James weighed in on the shooting in Columbus, Ohio. The since-deleted Tweet showed a photo of officer Nicholas Reardon, who is White, with an accompanying caption, “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY,” with an hourglass emoji. Did “you’re next” mean the officer was next to face prosecution for murder, or next to die?

Apparently James deleted the Tweet, and it was not taken down by Twitter. Perhaps the facts had some effect on his opinion. This was not the case for Valerie Jarrett, former senior advisor to President Obama. She opined that knife fights are common among young people, and police should not break them up. The first victim of a knife I saw in the emergency room had his throat cut ear-to-ear, and the second was sliced open from navel to spine. Jarrett is so far removed from reality that one wonders what planet she inhabits – surely not Earth.

The bottom line for both James and Jarrett is that police should have withheld fire and let the knife-wielding teenager stab the girl in pink, whose life – at least to these two fonts of wisdom – is worth little or nothing. Lebron James is worth $500 million, while Jarrett is worth $12 million. The starting salary for a police officer in Columbus, Ohio is $58,917 annually. James is subject to the injuries of a basketball player, and Jarrett is subject to paper cuts. The officer they condemn, on the contrary, is subject to death or disabling injury every time he goes to work.

I leave it to you to contemplate which of the three contributes more to human wellbeing, and which is likely to have more practical understanding of human behavior. My money’s on the cop. He just saved a life, which is more than James and Jarrett can say.

•