05/23/22 11:51:00
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05/23 11:49 CDT NHL, St. Louis police looking into threats made toward Kadri
NHL, St. Louis police looking into threats made toward Kadri
By STEPHEN WHYNO and JOHN WAWROW
AP Hockey Writers
The NHL said Monday that St. Louis police are investigating threats made toward
Colorado Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri, who has been the subject of racist
social media posts since he was involved in a collision that ended the season
of Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington.
Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press by email that the
league and police looking into the situation.
The team said Sunday night it was aware of threats against Kadri and was
working with local law enforcement to investigate. Kadri collided with
Binnington during Game 3 of their second-round playoff series Saturday night;
Kadri said a Blues player threw a water bottle at him during a postgame
interview.
The AP verified the existence of Twitter posts sent to the official Avalanche
team account and to Kadri's calling him "Arab scum" and referencing terrorism.
Other posts, some of which have since been deleted, included death threats. One
was still up hours before Game 4 in St. Louis, with Colorado leading the
best-of-seven series 2-1.
It was not clear if the social media posts were the subject of league, team or
police investigation or if there were other threats made toward Kadri, who is
of Lebanese descent.
"We take threats made to any of our players or other club personnel seriously,"
Daly said. "We are in touch with St. Louis Police Department and they are
employing enhanced security procedures both at the arena and in the hotel."
Former NHL player Akim Aliu told The AP by text message he has been in constant
communication with Kadri and added, "All we can really do is support him
morally."
"Naz has been subject to so many racist attacks and threats since last night
that police had to be brought in," tweeted Aliu, who is Nigerian-Canadian.
"Racist attacks like this have no place in hockey and should be investigated
and reported on."
Aliu and Kadri are members of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, which works toward
eradicating systemic racism and intolerance in hockey, and help in making the
sport more accessible to minorities and underprivileged youth.
The NHL has several layers of security in place, including club personnel and
additional services provided by the home team that are in constant
communication with the league's security department. That department activates
in situations such as this one and can work with federal and local law
enforcement, when necessary.
The league, with input from the NHL Players' Association established a
confidential hotline to which players can report harassment, discrimination or
other serious misconduct. It's operated by a third party, with the ability to
make reports by phone, email or online anonymously or with attribution.
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