Just a reminder: Anthem-kneeling isn’t about the flag, the anthem or the troops; it’s about slandering the police

Some of the NFL’s anthem-kneelers have expressed frustration that their critics – caught up in issues like troops, veterans and Francis Scott Key – are missing their real message. They want people to get past the patriotic themes and hear what they’re saying about police officers. For once I agree with them. Far too many critics of the anthem-kneelers are totally missing the point by defending the honor of the flag or the Star Spangled Banner. Anthem-kneeling has nothing to do with that.

---

It is about one thing and one thing only: Slandering America’s police officers with the completely false accusation that they are engaged in the systematic racist slaughter of black people. This is Colin Kaepernick’s message, and it’s been co-opted by all the other NFL players who have knelt for the anthem in the past three years. To be sure, some are doing it now just to defy Donald Trump, but the movement they’re supporting is still about the slander of the police. And there are some things you should know about this. The first is that it is almost certainly getting more police officers and more black men killed. It is getting police officers killed because minorities who don’t independently check these claims believe the voices of their leaders: The police are looking for an excuse to shoot you, black men! And some of them have gotten so angry about it that they have taken it upon themselves to murder police officers. It happened in New York. It happened in Dallas. And it’s all based on a lie, perpetrated by these football players and amplified by the news media and liberal politicians like Elizabeth Warren. And it’s getting black men killed because far too many black men, mistakenly trusting those who put out this nonsense, are choosing to flee from police officers and resist arrest out of fear that they really are dealing with white supremacists who are looking for an excuse to kill them. They are not. All they would have to do is follow the officers’ instructions and they would have no trouble. But they think their lives are in danger so they panic and do the very things that police officers, following their training, respond to with physical force and sometimes even the firing of their weapons. They resist arrest. They reach for their pockets or their waists when officers don’t know if they have a gun. And Colin Kaepernick is responsible for many of these deaths because he’s the one running around pushing this racist-cop nonsense and convincing minorities that they should not be cooperative or obedient when police officers give them instructions during a traffic stop or other type of incident.

---

---

America’s police officers are under attack, and they’re the ones who need someone to stand up for them. Because Colin Kaepernick and those of his ilk are getting them killed

To a large degree, these ignorant athletes are simply believing what they hear in the news media. When members of the Rams took the field giving the “hands up, don’t shoot” signal, they were supposedly paying tribute to Michael Brown, who (they thought) had put his hands up and begged “don’t shoot” before being shot. The only problem is that this never happened. It was a total fiction exposed by the serious investigation of the case, yet irresponsible media reports pushed it and these athlete/activists used their public platforms to make a lot of other people think it was true. There are bad cops just as there are bad people in any other profession, but there is no systematic racist assault on black people by America’s police officers. What we have is tension borne of a lot of misinformation, stoked by the news media and brought to a fever pitch by ignorant professional athletes. Kaepernick said he would not stand for the anthem of a nation that allows racist white cops to murder black men. Many nodded their heads and said that was a just cause. But America is not such a nation. We do not allow racist white cops to murder black men. On the exceedingly rare occasion when such a thing happens, the cops are dealt with severely. Much of the rest of the time when you think that’s what’s happened, you don’t know the real story and might not be willing to listen to it if someone told you. But the flag, the troops, veterans and the Star Spangled Banner don’t need defending. They are not under attack. America’s police officers are under attack, and they’re the ones who need someone to stand up for them. Because Colin Kaepernick and those of his ilk are getting them killed. They’re also getting some of the people they claim to be defending killed. That’s why Donald Trump is wrong in his criticisms of the anthem-kneelers. He is not being harsh enough.

---