Colin Kaepernick — via Facebook.
What a way to start a morning, with yet another cop union red-faced and screaming, insisting that all and sundry get on their knees, you must worship at the altar of cop!
he union representing more than 2,000 police officers in San Francisco complained to the National Football League and the San Francisco 49ers over Colin Kaepernick’s protest against overaggressive policing, KNBR-AM reported.
“Not only does he show an incredible lack of knowledge regarding our profession and ‘officer involved’ shootings, but also shows a naivety and total lack of sensitivity toward police officers,” San Francisco Police Officers Association (SFPOA) president Martin Halloran said in the letter, which was sent to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and team president Jed York.
Kaepernick specifically named police brutality as the reason he refused to stand for the national anthem prior to the 49ers’ pre-season game over the weekend, as he also called for increased training standards for officers.
“You have people that practice law and are lawyers and go to school for eight years, but you can become a cop in six months and don’t have to have the same amount of training as a cosmetologist,” he said. “That’s insane. Someone that’s holding a curling iron has more education and more training than people that have a gun and are going out on the street to protect us.”
In response, Halloran said that the quarterback failed to address the “emotional and psychological challenges” the union’s members encounter after killing someone in the line of duty, and accused Kaepernick of pushing a “false narrative” blaming officers. At the same time, Halloran invited Kaepernick of going through a day of training at the local police academy.
Bluster, blather, blah, blah, blah. Here’s an idea about the “emotional and psychological challenges” engendered by cops murdering people – stop murdering people! And I haven’t even had that crazy long six month training. Of course, one could point out that other countries have community based training which lasts for 3 years, and they end up with cops who don’t murder people every 5 minutes.
“Perhaps Mr. Kaepernick could comment on the murder of 40 police officers in the United States in the past few months, or the assaults perpetrated on over 100,000 law enforcement officers in the past year,” Halloran wrote. “Perhaps he could lend his commentary to the over 8,000 murders that African-Americans inflicted on one another.”
Are you sure those are all murders, Mr. Halloran? Because most cops who die on the job die in traffic related accidents. Now, 40 deaths is bad. That’s a lot of bad. It’s not quite as bad as over 1,000 people of colour murdered by cops in the course of one year. Especially in light of the fact that this year, cops seem determined to up that number considerably. Then we have the wonderful bigot bingo: you ni**ers are more busy killing each other! Don’t talk to us about training! You ni**gers apologize right now, or more of you are going to get it! I’m thinking cops need a uniform change here, one that will reflect their attitudes accurately.
Similarly, Halloran’s letter failed to mention reports linking more than two dozen local officers to the possible sexual exploitation of a young woman — a case which led the Oakland Police Department to go through three police chiefs in less than a month earlier this year.
The union letter also failed to address the findings of a three-judge panel last month showing evidence of “institutionalized bias” within the department targeting African-Americans and Latinos for traffic stops at disproportionate levels compared to Asian-American and white residents.
You might strongarm the NFL into sucking up, but you won’t see an apology (or apologetics) from me. Cops suck, and you damn well know it, that’s why you can’t cope with a single person standing up and doing the right thing. You should be ashamed, but it seems all the cops lost the capacity for shame a long time ago.
And yes, it looks like Kaepernick has lost his job. Tina Knowles stood up for Kaepernick, while Sean Hannity screamed “he converted to Islam!”. Then there’s the Fox idiot who said he should just shut up, because America gave him two white parents. I need a gallon of tea now…
Via Raw Story.
The SFPD, Oakland PD, and BART police all need a complete overhaul. Corruption, racism, misogyny. I’d hope the police in the ultra liberal Bay Area would somehow be better trained than the rest of the country. But I’m not shocked to be disappointed. I walk past a memorial to Oscar Grant every time I take BART. Fuck cops’ “emotional and psychological challenges”.
Stellatree:
Right there with you. I had to pick my jaw up after reading that bit.
This is what happens when you give the schoolyard bullies the tools and legal right to oppress others.
I remember back in the ’70s and early ’80s when Chicago tried, briefly, to get control of its out of control cops. One of the most important recommendations of the several studies was for cops to have significantly more education and training. They wanted to make the police training academy like a graduate school, requiring a four year college degree for entry.
The cop union went ballistic. The city tried to negotiate the training down, then negotiated the four year degree down to a two year degree. Then a special two year cop degree. Then back down to nothing, keeping the status quo.
We need to start telling all of the local candidates that cop reform must be on their platform if they want our support. Let the cops strike and call in federal agents to replace them.
If being a cop is so tough, they could always get another job.
That’s literally the abusive husband’s playbook, right? “This is hurting me much more than you, stop making this about your broken bones!”
Now, now, it’s not bingo until you also get black-on-white crime there as well. Personally I’m surprised the cops didn’t write that, or that they don’t end all of their letters with “the South will rise again”.
Alexander:
Probably too busy having a tantrum to include the full bingo card. I’ve spent a lot of time in San Francisco, and it’s really disheartening to see this shit coming from there.
You mean like in that leaked video that showed them high fiving each other after murdering someone (or am I remembering that wrong)?
I’m pro-union, but police unions gotta fucking go. FTP.