The St. Louis Rams’ ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ Protest - The Daily Fix - WSJ
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Professional sports are rarely a province for civil unrest. Take it from a young Michael Jordan, upon being asked to donate to a political campaign, apocryphally responding with “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” But there’s certainly opportunity to players to speak out, and on Sunday, several players for the St. Louis Rams made their voices heard.
As they came out of the tunnel during introductions before their game against the Oakland Raiders, Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Chris Givens, Stedman Bailey, and Kenny Britt raised their hands in reference to the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” protest—a sign that became ubiquitous during the recent protests in Ferguson, Mo., over the shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson. Following the subsequent investigation, a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson. Protesters across the country have voiced their displeasure with the decision—a number of them were stationed outside the Edward James Dome, where the Rams play. The gesture didn’t go unnoticed, even as the players, all of whom are black, tried to be diplomatic. Britt was quoted as saying, “Taking sides? We wanted to show that we were there for a cause that something positive comes out of it.”
As far as dialogue between opposing sides, much of which has exposed fractious fault lines within attitudes toward race and state, this passes for downright tranquil. And yet, the players were immediately criticized by the St. Louis Police Officers Association, which released a fiery statement criticizing the players and demanding an appropriate response—reprimand from the team, or the league
I don't blame the St. Louis PD. WTF? It was proven that Brown was
not shot with his hands up in surrender contrary to what his little sidekick in the convenience store robbery claimed - and which people have clung on to as if it were true.
I'll bet these guys would call the St. Louis PD in a second if there big fancy houses were being robbed.
The PD's statement is here, and it is indeed "fiery"
SLPOA condemns Rams display
Protest is great. Support your cause. I'd love to see the Rams support some causes that are important to me and lots of others too, like animal abuse and elder abuse. But if they did do it where the protest could be seen, I would hope they would be honest about what happened and not feed into the rhetoric and propaganda as they did on Sunday.