The Knee Kaepernick NFL Nike
Why does it bother me so much?
A young man goes to college in the 1980's and his parents struggle to pay for it. He lives at home and keeps costs down, and sees there is an advertisement for reserve police officers in his home town. He inquires, applies and is hired pending the completion of 200 hours of course training. The department won't pay for that training and he takes night classes on top of the 4 year BA/BS program he's already in.
Soon the student is an officer and getting paid shifts. He makes a stunning $9.70 an hour which is enough for college tuition, gas and car insurance. His parents are left only with his living at home expenses and some books - used books at that. Its a great relationship for all. The city gets a part time cop, the student can afford college, and the parents didn't have to borrow any money.
One sunday evening just before the sun went down the officers see's a car on the freeway traveling at a higher than safe rate of speed. He races onto the freeway in position to put on his lights and pull the car over. The car's driver complies and pulls over on the edge of the small town. Its sunday evening and heavy traffic contributed to the officers ability to catch up to the speeder. The officer, now just 21 years old with 2.5 years of experience and a senior in college called off the stop and positioned his car perfect. The dispatcher didn't reply with anything on the radio about the license number so after a brief delay the officer began his safe approach. He was distracted by cars on the highway at 60 miles per hour only feet away but remained focused on the driver and that no one else was in the 1970's Ford sedan.
As he got to the back of the car the officer hesitated a bit, felt uneasy and noticed the driver was studying him carefully in both the side and rear view mirror. He didn't want to ask the driver to step out, it wasn't safe, for the traffic was just 6-8 feet away from the drivers side of the car.
The officer kept on his approach then collapsed. His reported recollection was the first thing he noticed as that his leg just gave out from under him. He fell to the ground and backwards from the car. He was looking at the car when he fell, and noticed a hole in the drivers door. Then another hole. He felt something fly, wisk or flip past his head. He realized his leg was shot, the second hole was another round, and the driver was now a gunman. In that instant he responded with the draw of his weapon, and the return of fire to the drivers seat of the car.
It was about 6:50 pm and not quite dark. A truck driver's statement was he thought WWIII was going on. He saw the cop on the ground and his repeated muzzle flash. The truck driver stood on his breaks and brought the large freight truck to a sliding stop just 10-15 feet short of the officer and blocking the right lane.
It was over at 6:50 and 15 seconds. The first shot and the last shot were apparently fired in 11 seconds time. This was known because the officer was dictating notes before the car stop, and left the recorder on. In that 11 seconds the gunman, the driver, fired two rounds and struck the officer in the leg with the first. The officer returned 11 rounds into the drivers seat from the ground he laid on. 10 of the 11 rounds struck the driver in the center mass and the 11th struck his head killing him instantly. No one has a clue which of the 11 rounds stuck his head, and the ten at center mass would have killed him anyway.
A person passing by stopped and approached the officer on the ground. His gun still pointed towards the car. The officer was on his walkie talkie yelling 11-99, 11-99, 11-99. This was the ten code for "officer down shots fired." The truck driver and the passenger approached the officer carefully and then encouraged him to let them drag him away from the car and back to his patrol car. It was during this time the officer reported the first time he felt the agony and burning pain in the center high thigh of his leg. Sirens blared as the cities remaining two officers raced to the scene.
The officer would heal and be exonerated of any wrong doing. A complaint was filed that he shot the man 11x and it was excessive but the complaint was dismissed by the department, the county's district attorney and the states attorney generals office. It turned out the man behind the wheel was about to be the subject of a "BOL" or be on the look out from a neighboring city. He'd raped a 15 year old forcefully and they were just slow in getting the data out to the neighboring cities. Clearly he didn't know that.
The dead man's family sued the officer, city, county and state. The lawyers for them lined up on the sole claim of excessive force for shooting too many rounds. The case was dismissed by a judge and never went to trial. Later the officer would graduate college and leave the police department at the same time.
What is not in this story: RACE
Because it doesn't matter does it?
When Kaepernick takes a knee to protest police brutality he stands up for people like the shooter in this case. When the NFL and Nike support Kaepernick they do so in support of the shooter. The case above is anecdotal they note, a single case, and there are many of great abuse of citizens by cops. Yes there are; also anecdotal are those cases. To suggest there is a systemic abuse of minorities by police officers is disingenuous. Disingenuous because in many cases the criminal and the officer don't even know what the race is; and when bullets fly I'd say they don't even CARE.