Ignorant Ingrates

When you don't stand up for the national anthem of the United States, the freest country on earth, which has enabled you to become incredibly rich doing what you love to do, you are not only an ungrateful jackass, but also an ignorant fool.

Colin Kaepernick has been rated one of the richest NFL players in the game with a 2015 salary of $10,400,000 plus additional bonuses of $1,655,000 from the San Francisco 49ers. In 2016, his wealth is valued at $22 million.

Kaepernick was born on November 3, 1987 in Milwaukee Wisconsin. A graduate of the University of Nevada Reno with a degree in business management, he joined the NFL in 2002 when he became the 36th overall pick in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He was named as Offensive Player of the Year by the Western Athletic Conference twice (he's still pretty offensive, if you ask me) and the Most Valuable Player during the 2008 Humanitarian Bowl. Which proves that you can be well educated, extremely rich, a professional football player, win all kinds of awards, and still be a stupid jerk.

Kaepernick says he has been deliberately not standing at NFL games during the national anthem of the United States because of the history of racial oppression in the country, and more specifically the recent spate of unarmed black men killed by the police. Now many other players are joining the protest by not standing up for the country's national anthem. Which proves that there is more than one stupid jerk in the NFL.

Here are the facts concerning cops killing blacks. According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2014 (which is the last year of official records) the police killed 261 whites and 131 blacks. The CDC also found that from 1999 to 2013, the police killed almost twice the number of whites compared to blacks, 3,160 and 1,724, respectively.

JWR commentator Larry Elder(himself a black man by the way) wrote that

"Activists promptly note that whites account for nearly 65 percent of the population and that, therefore, one would expect whites to comprise most of those killed by cops. And we are told that blacks, while 13 percent of the population, represent a much greater percentage of those killed by cops. ... Here's what those promoting the "police disproportionately kill black people" narrative consistently omit. Whites, despite being almost 65 percent of the population, disproportionately commit less of the nation's violent crime - 10 percent. Blacks, at 13 percent of the population, disproportionately commit more violent crime. As to murders, black commit nearly half. Yet whites are 50 percent of cop killings."

Forensic criminologist Ron Martinelli wrote in "The Hill" last July following the complete exoneration of the Baltimore police officers who were charged in the death of Freddie Gray, "As Prosecutor Mosby, her team, the media and so-called "No Justice; No Peace" Black Lives Matter supporters have embarrassingly learned time and time again in the cases of Trayvon Martin v. George Zimmerman (Stafford, FL); Michael Brown v. Officer Darren Wilson (Ferguson, MO); the State v. Officer Michael Brelo (Cleveland, OH); and now the State v. the Freddie Gray officers (Baltimore, MD); it is ultimately the forensic facts and not the false narratives that prevail in an ethical court of law."

Facts are facts. According to the Washington Post, in 2015 the police killed 965 people. But of those, the Post found that "white police officers killing unarmed black men represent less than 4 percent of fatal police shootings."

And as Elder points out, if there were even a remote chance of getting a successful prosecution, wouldn't Obama's Department of Justice have filed civil rights charges against those officers for murder? Of course they would, but they never did. The facts of those cases are 100% opposite from the Black Lives Matter rhetoric. But remember, BLM has a whole other agenda going which doesn't include truth and honesty.

You see, you actually have to read up on this stuff, examine the evidence, and not allow raw emotion to drive your actions, especially if you happen to be in a high profile position such as a pro football player. I really don't know the motives behind Kaepernick's actions, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to pure ignorance, nothing more.

Seriously though, before you go shooting your mouth off it's always a good idea to get the facts straight. And insulting the country that has been so good to you is never cool.

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JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. He's been a JWR contributor since 1999.