Pirates' Bell condemns racial injustice: 3 'disgusting' things within few weeks

Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Josh Bell is denouncing racial injustice in the United States as protests continue throughout the world in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody.

"It's a scenario where, as a nation, it felt like we went through the Amy Cooper incident, then the Ahmaud Arbery incident shortly before that," Bell said Friday on MLB Network Radio. "So, it was like within a week and a half, two weeks, it was three glaringly disgusting things going on where it felt like injustice was continuing to thrive.

"We're all sitting at home watching. We have no baseball. We have no LeBron posterizing somebody on TV. There's no SportsCenter Top 10 right now. We're all sitting at home watching these disgusting things unfold. You know, it's tough. But it's awesome to see that people of all color are feeling the same way, people of all color are feeling that injustice is real here in the (United) States."

The All-Star added: "I'm just hoping that this time next year, this time four or five years from now, things will have changed so that things like this don’t happen. It can't be swept under the rug. It doesn't need a video camera somewhere. It's time for that change, so I'm hoping that it comes now."

Protests demanding police accountability erupted in the U.S. after a video showed Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin and the other three officers involved in the incident were fired, and all four are facing criminal charges.