This is the story that came up on my newsfeed. See the headline? Almost every comment on the thread mentions something along the lines of, “This is why Kaepernick takes a knee”. Did these people click beyond the headline, have reading comprehension issues, or thinking comprehension issues? Here is the story:
Police stopped, drew guns and handcuffed a black teenager on suspicion that he was robbing two white women he was in a car with, before it emerged that one of them was his grandmother and the other was giving them both a ride home from church.
The incident took place in Wauwatosa, in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, on Sunday, after a bystander told police that he had witnessed what looked like a robbery of two white women in a blue Lexus vehicle. Police officers stopped the car and told the 18-year-old man, whose name was not given, to step out with his hands up, go on his knees and enter the police vehicle, before one of the officers approached the Lexus and soon realized the mistake.
“This is my grandson,” one of the women is heard telling the officer who asked her if she was OK, according to dashcam footage of the incident, broadcast by local NBC-affiliate TMJ4. “We’re on our way home from church to my house.”
The officer can be heard apologizing for “that guy not knowing what he was talking about,” referring to the man who had driven by the police vehicle to alert officers that the young man in the women’s car was “robbing them right now.”
“I’m sure he saw two old white ladies in a car with a black kid and he made some assumptions,” the woman can be heard saying, before the officer informed her that the man in question was black himself. “Oh my God. Then it’s even worse,” the woman exclaimed. The woman assured the officer that the teenager was no threat to either of them, telling the officer that her friend had known him since he was very young.
“It’s all good, he’s her grandson,” one officer is heard shouting to the squad car, before the young man was released.
The police officers said they could not locate the bystander who had alerted them to question him formally on what led him to suspect the young man was robbing the two women.
So those people pontificating “this is why Colin kneels” are essentially claiming Kapernick’s whole animus for not standing during the National Anthem is based upon a distorted media-driven narrative of false reporting on racial prejudice and persecution based upon skin and ethnicity. Because the “witness” who reported to the police what he saw or thinks he saw going on in the car, happens to be black himself. And who’s to say what drove him to that perception, which turned out to be mistaken? Was it based upon racial prejudice against his own skin color (victim of institutionalized racism)? Or movement and actions going on inside the car that could have led him or perhaps anyone to wonder? We will never know because we weren’t there to witness what he witnessed at the moment he witnessed it; nor does it appear that anyone will be identifying the witness to us anytime soon. So we don’t know what kind of a person this witness is. Leaving the door wide open for media fueling and fanning and feeding the frenzy of racial animus and the false narrative of racial oppression. Confirmation bias, based upon flawed information.
This wasn’t a case of police brutality or racial prejudice. They were right to investigate. And based upon the article, the police behaved professionally.
Yet so many of those comments suggest that this is why Colin Kaepernick kneels. And why he’s awarded a multi-million dollar contract in “a country that oppresses black people and people of color,”
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
People almost never read past the headline.
Well, this is WHY Kaepernick kneels; he and others believe EVERY police action that happens to target a black person is racist. In other words, in Kaepernick’s and his supporters way of thinking, suspects should have their race used as a basis of innocence or guilty; if they are black, they should be left alone. I think that qualifies as racism.
@Kim Harrison:
considering that 38% of Americans are illiterate.
Newsweek why is this a story?
Some crack or on crack reporter listening to a police scanner?
@MOS#8541: Considering how many teachers are nearly illiterate it is not surprising.
WaPo:
I’m sure some of these incidents are cases of “living while black”; while others are a case of confirmation bias and hypersensitivity where the default becomes “must be due to racism”.
Th only reason blacks have made “This is why Colin takes the knee” a thing is that Colin, himself, has been so pathetically poor at explaining why he really takes a knee.
It boiled down to him hoping his taking a knee would force his team from putting him back in after the coach benched him. (All the other teams had got his one-trick number, so he was ineffective as a QB.)
The NFL uses QBs who can PASS over QBs, like Colin, who can RUN.
A QB who runs is a QB who will be injured soon and often.
Too bad Colin didn’t use his time off to learn how to pass and pitch out and hand off better.
Maybe then, he would be playing.
If he’d have gotten an NFL job the kneeling would probably have stopped.
This is my take. Colin was joyful Christian (with the tattoos to show) before he met a militant Muslim woman who took his little brain down below and his brain above was subsequently turned to mush with a little hooch and a lot of propoganda. Thus, the hairstyle change and the Islamic style heard showed up. Period!
@jlfcpa: And the degraded performance on the field.
@Bookdoc:
No, you have no idea of the liberal mentality or over 80% of school superintendents. if you only knew the views shared by these people that teach America’s children you would be appalled
@jlfcpa: Interesting take–no doubt a woman can activate” the little head does the big head’s thinking.”
That said Colin has always been good enough to make an NFL roster–2nd string QB and given a start –who knows.
His commercial has actually given a 31% bump up to Nike online sales–and the stock has stabilized after initial one day drop of about 4%.
Only in America–Nike’s paying him all-pro salary..
This story has racial overtones; overtones that can be expanded by a vivid imagination governed by a compromised cerebral cortex.
I feel the distrust and see the menacing stares. It is my lot in life to be one of those men that attracts the attention of little children. Children of all races walk up to me and say, “Hi”, or wave to me or just smile and giggle. I always smile and wave to them, but these gestures of love result in looks of scorn and distrust from parents and grandparents; yet, I am the last person on earth that would endanger or harm a child.
There is an element of mistrust in America, fueled by hatred and divisive politics. The police must respond effectively and decisively to avoid a potential disaster. From the article, we may assume that no one was mad among the principles, but the duo who reported the fake crime may have perpetrated a false alarm for nefarious reasons.
Oh, I have helped a couple of lost kids get reunited with their parents, but the first thing I do is call the police, report the location and wait with the child in the open. That’s the best I can do for a child with tears in his or her eyes, who is tugging on my trouser leg.
It is a great feeling to help a child.
@Nan G:
This is really the bottom line. He was pissed because his ego couldn’t handle not being played even while earning tens of millions a year. He can’t even articulate what he’s doing.
The pandering socialist media curved this into a racial demonstration and is thrilled it’s harmed a sport the left despises almost as much as it despises NASCAR.
@James Raider: he also managed to get a ten figure salary, not bad for a has been. The big question remains: can the company or will the company withstand the loss of business and will the share holders be willing to suffer the losses to stand behind a halfwit.
@Skookum:
Hey Skook, good to hear from you. Trust all is well.
Strange times we seem to be living in, but there is enough common sense still floating that will continue to support the notion of real Liberty for all rather than big oppressive government for all.
The left also supports Big Corporate blobs which annihilate the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial spirit. I view companies such as Nike just part of that blob. It long ago lost its entrepreneurial spirit and this “corporate” decision in support of this “dimwit” as you say, is just symptomatic of the pathetic pandering to media we are witnessing by large corporations.
I heard a short interview in Canada recently with Bruce Heyman, Obama’s money bagman formerly from Goldman Sachs whom he made Ambassador to Ottawa in recompense. The crap this airhead voiced against Trump was all outright lies, or outrageous opinions Obama would have been proud of, flying in the face of facts.
Big bankers and Big corporations who control the West, want things like open borders and politicians they can manipulate. Obama, with Jarrett, was a perfect shill for them, quickly moving America toward crony capitalism faster than ever. But the applauding socialist Democrat crowd is naively blind to it.
Here’s hoping Nike shrivels into oblivion and makes room for new entrepreneurs in their industry.
@james raider: JR, you can say a bunch in a few sentences, sharp and to the point. Well said, as always!