Colin Kaepernick releases statement on death of George Floyd

[Mike 03]

WTRF
John Lynch
Posted: May 28, 2020 / 01:08 PM EDT / Updated: May 28, 2020 / 01:08 PM EDT

(WTRF)- Colin Kaepernick has released his first statement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction. The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance. We have the right to fight back! Rest in Power George Floyd - COLIN KAEPERNICK

Protesters began gathering yesterday afternoon near the city’s 3rd Precinct station, in the southern part of the city where 46-year-old George Floyd died on Memorial Day after an officer knelt on his neck until he became unresponsive.

Short article. No more at link: https://www.wtrf.com/top-news/colin-kaepernick-releases-statement-on-death-of-george-floyd/

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[Mosby]

2. He could have phrased that better

Sounds like he supports the violence.

[CatWoman]

3. Have you seen Mississippi Burning?

[Brainfodder]

8. Yeah, that wording is a bit open to interpretations and whoa!

Fighting back is one thing, openly hostile is quite another?

[GeorgeGist]

10. Believe it or not ...

Revolts often include violence eg., The American Revolution.

[RVN VET71]

14. I think that's the point being made here:

Was he calling for a revolution, that kind of "revolting?"

Or was he saying the murder, like so many others, of a black man by a racist cop is revolting?

Big difference between the two.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Frederick Douglass

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. Frederick Douglass, Speech, April 1886"

Last year, quietly unnoticed, was the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves in what would become the United States.

It is now 401 years that we have, as a 'great melting pot' society, abjectly failed to fix the divide between races in our country. Even inaction has consequences. In the face of this much neglect toward the basic civil rights and humanity that we owe each other, can we really pretend to be shocked when people push back?

I'm not going to clutch my pearls. I understand.

[Brainfodder]

4. Fighting back in court is the proper way, however?

Destroying your neighborhoods and businesses, literally, is not the answer?

It's a show of anger intensity, I get it!

[Hav]

7. I don't disagree with you questioning whether violence or riots

are the answers.
On the other side, Kaepernick is literally the perfect example about the limitations and acceptance of peaceful protests and whether that changed anything. Again, I detest any kind of violence, but it's easy to understand his frustration when we compare two instances of kneeling and the shit he received for his type of kneeling that didn't result in a death.

[markpkessinger]

15. Six years after Eric Garner, how can anyone expect them to have any faith in the court system?

• Eight years since Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams -- misdemeanor charges against some of the involved officers dismissed; and the cop who was charged with negligent homicide found not-guilty by a judge ( in a non-jury trial);


• Seven years after Andy Lopez . . . no charges filed.


• Six years after Michael Brown . . . no charges.


• Six years after Tamir Rice . . . grand jury declined to indict;


• Five years since Freddie Gray -- six officers charged with manslaughter (hung jury for one of them, the other two were acquitted in bench trials, other charges dismissed


• Four years after the death of Alton Sterling . . .grand jury declined to indict.

And this doesn't even scratch the surface!

And no, it isn't a "show of anger intensity." It is raw emotion itself -- emotion that when it boils over in a large group, does not follow rules of rational self-interest. This is the danger of allowing an issue such as racist policing to fester for so long. Once this boils over, it is out of the hands of any individual or group of individuals to rein in.

[raging moderate]

5. We should ALL be on our knees.

ALL of us who can see the horror of George Floyd's murder should somehow take a knee (or two) with Colin Kaepernick.

[ismnotwasm]

6. K&R

[CatWoman]

9. dedicate this to Colin

[Dawson Leery]

11. He was right to kneel in protest.

[Solly Mack]

16. K&R