Mere days after announcing they would be supporting minority-owned game studios with $10 million in investments and donating $1 million to the Innocence Project and the ACLU, Riot Games’ toxic “bro culture” has reared its ugly head again.
Ron Johnson, Global Head of Consumer Products at Riot Games has been placed on leave while an internal investigation has been opened after sharing a post on his private Facebook account implying George Floyd was murdered by police because of his “criminal lifestyle”.
In the post, Johnson describes Floyd’s death at the hands of 4 Minneapolis Police officers as a “learning opportunity for people (and your kids) to teach that this type of criminal lifestyle never results in good things happening to you or those around you”. The post then lists Floyd’s criminal record.
Floyd was originally stopped by police after trying to purchase a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 note. In the wake of the killing, Irish comedian, Dara Ó Briain, noted he too had used a fake note in the past and incorporated the story into one of his acts.
While hard to follow, Johnson’s convoluted logic appears to suggest that the disproportionate use of force by police and Floyd’s public execution was somehow justified by crimes previously committed.
Johnson’s post, in layman’s terms, is not only disgusting but also misses the point of the Black Lives Matter protests emanating from the death of the 46-year-old who was forced to endure an officer’s knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. In Vice’s report on the incident, they highlight the disparity between policing white and black communities in Minneapolis where police use force against black people seven times more often than they do against white people.
Speaking with VICE, Riot Games said of the incident, “the sentiment in that image is abhorrent, against our values, and directly counter to our belief that addressing systemic racism requires immediate societal change, which we detailed in the commitments we made Friday.” They have announced that they will be following their disciplinary processes “closely and have placed him on leave pending its conclusion.”
Johnson joined Riot Games at the end of January having worked previously as Executive Vice President of Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products at Viacom International Media Networks, and as an executive with Disney Consumer Products.
Riot are a company plagued in recent years by a spate of controversies including a toxic and sexist company culture of sexual harassment, misconduct, and gender discrimination. The results of which have led to a class-action lawsuit as well as a walkout by employees.