Carmelo Anthony convenes L.A. meeting to put his words on social justice into action

Carmelo Anthony plans to meet with politicians, community leaders and other athletes Monday in Los Angeles to start a discussion about the recent violence involving police officers, the New York Knicks star said Thursday while training with the U.S. Olympic team in Las Vegas.

"We want to get youth. We want to get kids. We want to get adults. We want to get officers. We want to get teachers," Anthony said. "We want to get community leaders, athletes, everybody, having this conversation and talking on both sides, hearing each other out. It's part of continuing what I started off.”

In a powerful Instagram post earlier this month after two African American men were shot by police and five Dallas police officers were shot by a sniper, Anthony urged his fellow athletes to talk to their leaders and demand change.

“We have to put the pressure on the people in charge in order to get this thing we call JUSTICE right,” Anthony wrote.

He added: “We have to step up and take charge. We can't worry about what endorsements we gonna lose or whose going to look at us crazy. I need your voices to be heard.”

Anthony said Thursday that the L.A. meeting will be closed to the media to encourage honest talk. He said participants need to "be open-minded from both sides and all fronts, whether you're a police officer, a mailman, trashman, homeless, whoever you are. I just think it's about being aware and open-minded."

One meeting isn’t going to solve all the social injustice in our country, Anthony acknowledged. But he feels it can be a start in the right direction.

“I think everybody is searching for answers,” he said. “People are searching for what to do and how to do it. We're not going to find answers overnight. It's not going to happen."

He added: "What I'm doing now is trying to lay the foundation down and just trying to take advantage of this platform that we have. Hopefully everybody in their own individual rights branch out and start doing things on their own."