Trump vs... sports athletes

Yep, starting with him and his base lambasting Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem, referring to him as a son of a b**** (Duterte taught him well, I see) and calling for him to be fired, as well as bashings of other other athletes, such as NBA's Lebron James and Stephen Curry.

However, other players, staff, and family in the NFL and NBA are fighting back.

Of course, Trump called for a boycott of the NFL as well.

Bender, take it away!

LeBron’s response was great. The president is a clown who repeatedly feuds with citizens.

Heh..... Trumps such a petty snowflake little bitch.

I dont think ive ever seen a public figure with so much sand in his vagina before, who acts like a spoiled 5 year old.

Thanks democrats. Had you guys not supported the most corrupted bitch on the planet, we'd have Bernie in office right now.

Eh I'm not a trump fan.....not even close but I don't like politics in sports. Also Kapernick isn't very good but some liberals think he should be playing anyway. Both sides are idiots.

He might not be a starter but hes definitely a top 10 second string QB... .maybe even top 3. He should be competing for a starting role.

I think its far more of a controversy issue than race, but he should have a job in the NFL.

Kaepernick's 2016 QBR put him 17th in the NFL. The idea that he's not in the league solely because he's not good enough is garbage.

I hope Curry and the Warriors take a picture with Obama on whatever day it was they were supposed to visit the White House. That might be enough to push Twitler over the edge.

I'm not a fan of people kneeling during the national anthem, but he should have left the subject alone. All it did was get even more people pissed off at him, and it wouldn't surprise me if the result is even more athletes kneeling just to defy him. It also wouldn't surprise me if the president just gave a few teams an incentive to hire Kaepernick out of spite, since it wouldn't be for his talent or he would already be on a team.

Also, spending so much time talking about athletes kneeling while not speaking about the hurricane victims in Puerto Rico was not one of his best decisions. He may have been appealing to his Alabama audience, but the speech was still broadcasted to the rest of the country. It's not like the guy he was endorsing needed his endorsement that bad for the sake of keeping a red senator, since both people running we're Republicans.

I definitely agree he should be in the league but QBR does not really say much.

That said, this is purely about the projected image for a franchise in a league that has a fan base who responds to things like this, exactly how they did. Its a very "Merica **** Ya" fan base. There's nothing racial going on here and people really need to drop that nonsense.

Fair enough. Individual stats are pretty hard to put in context in the NFL.

I don't follow your point about this not being racial. After people finally noticed what he was doing (week three of the preseason), he explained himself pretty clearly: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

@Bullet_Sponge: Nobody is disputing the fact that he originally sat down during the National Anthem because of police brutality. But while there may be a few racists that are using it against him, to suggest that everyone that is complaining is a racist requires us to ignore people that are upset because they don't like seeing the flag disrespected.

This is true. Lets not forget Keap replaced Alex Smith, who was a great starting QB and the game before they decided to bench him in favor of Keap, he had done something like throw 25 for 27 300+ yards 3TDs but got that one interception... which apparently was enough to bench him. But this is why we don't look at QBR or even stats for why teams do what they do, SF simply wanted to go young and a different direction. And with Kaep, i suspect they realized the mistake they made and wanted to get out from under him before they invested more time effort and money into him.

My point is that no franchise wants to have this on their shoulders. Its all about the bottom line for them and no one wants to risk jersey sales or ticket sales or tv viewership just to sign, what would probably be a secondary. For franchises its not a racial issue, its a media and potential loss of sales issue.

Bit of a non-secret here. Football teams don't care about any other issue than making money for the franchise and if someone can ball. Whenever you see the NFL or franchises take up any other issue... breast cancer, hurricane, etc. this is not them actually giving a shit, its outside forces forcing their will on them. Are these things bigger than football? Absolutely. So take them outside of football and put them in their proper context and arenas.

And the NFL has hired some of those players who have left bodies in the streets and only because that person can play ball.

What's really astonishing about Trump is how quickly he dumped the very few (but key) good things about his campaign, like economic isolationism and non-interventionism, treating Marco Rubio like the little bitch that he is and just all around steamrolling the establishment with his unpredictable personality, and how he kept all the many horrible things that make him such a deplorable piece of shit.

The biggest issue for Kaep is that he isn't a traditional pocket passer. He needs to either be a starter or a backup to a QB with a similar style so that the offensive scheme doesn't have to drastically change when he gets put in.

That leaves him with only a few possibilities, and even then the fit is imperfect.

Well now we've got entire teams sitting out the anthem and kneeling. Trump seems to be a unifier on some things....just not in the manner that he'd probably like.

If you're speaking about several of the players from the Jaguars and Ravens kneeling this morning in London during the US National Anthem (they stood up for God Save the Queen) and the Steelers' plan to skip the anthem today in response to the president, I see where they are coming from. However, the National Anthem and the US flag do not represent Donald Trump.

As the President of the United States, he has his own theme (Four Ruffles and Flourishes and Hail to the Chief) and he has his own flag. I would be okay with them disrespecting that all day if they were doing it in protest of his words and actions, but disrespecting the flag itself just shows disrespect to the country in general. The country has been here before Trump or anyone else that supports him was here and assuming nothing catastrophic happens in the next hundred years, it will be here when we are all dead. When the 46th president is sworn in, we're still going to have the same national anthem.

I am not saying that they shouldn't have the right to do it, because that is a right we have under the First Amendment, although I don't know whether or not the NFL or the team owners are restricted from penalizing them from doing it due to some clause in their contracts (the First Amendment doesn't apply to non-government employers). Some people are just tired of politics bleeding into entertainment and many patriots on both sides of the party lines would probably rather see their favorite players play football than disrespect their country even if they claim it is in response to Trump's comments.

At the same time, Trump should have just left it alone and let the fans speak for themselves, rather than suggest that the NFL fires players for kneeling. If enough people protest players and teams that knell, then they will stop on their own so that they don't stop making money.

We literally have a president that calls peaceful protesters "sons of bitches". Just let that sink in.

I'd tell these dipshits to go play in the CFL for $80k a year if they can't stand it here.

As an aside, is anyone else starting to feel that the default, unquestioned reverence people are supposed to give to national symbols a little unsettling? It appears to be encroaching on religious grounds.

@LordQuorthon: Economic isolationism wasn’t a good thing in the 1930s, never mind in 2017 lol.

Politics in sports is asinine. Although, seeing the Michael Bennet ordeal made me laugh, his desperate attempt at attention by lying to garner support was pure comedy.

What did he lie about?

Being picked out of a crowd for no good reason and then being detained for no good reason?

I wonder if youll be laughing when the city settles because of another example of racial profiling by police.

Ya it's crazy that these athletes think they are entitled to an opinion like everyone else.

The only reason people like you don't like athletes voicing their opinions is because you don't like that people care about their opinions and no one cares about your opinions.

But they can stand it here, they are doing just fine. Sharing your opinion doesn't mean you cant stand it, what a ridiculous thing to say.

Even if im not an american citizen , that line right there is some honest shit.

He accused LVPD of pointing guns at him for “doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Despite Bennett being in an area where there were many other black males, and his actions made it appear that he was fleeing from police at a reported active shooter scene, and he jumped into traffic to get away, he still chose to release a statement claiming that he was detained for no other reason than being black, rather than contacting anybody at Las Vegas Metro.

I would never put stock in a "settlement" being indignant of anything. I used to work construction and also helped in the finance area in a smaller but renowned local company. Our company had very good insurance which always peeked the interest of many money-seekers, thus frivolous lawsuits would come at us (ironically at times, jobs we literally had nothing to deal with), but our legal team would *still* settle because it simply cost the insurance company less money to settle than it would be to fight the lawsuit. This is a common ordeal within the civil world. Cities and Counties will do the same thing.

Odd, where did I say they weren't entitled to have an opinion?

No one cares about my opinions! Oh my goodness! What am I going to do with my life!

Awww. Poor little snowflake Trump. lol

It could just be some kind of diversionary tactic though albeit a pretty stupid one.

It almost feels like anyone that kneels now is just a poser trying to be cool and get recognition. Man if I used my job at work as a platform for my political views, I'd be fired in an instant. I have to even be careful of what I put on Facebook (As does any smart employee, even if it's your right). I'm not against people sitting during the anthem, just don't make a spectacle over it. I'm not sure Kap was trying to do that at first, but the media over played it until he didn't have much choice. Kinda curious how all the supporters of NFL players kneeling would feel if they did something a little more disrespectful... Like posting a pic of burning a flag on Twitter. That would at least be off the field. On the field, aka at your job, is not the place to make a scene about police brutality or whatever... If it had to do with football, like the concussion issue, then maybe I could understand it. These athletes make enough money to have tv commercials or radio shows, or rallies(with the media bradcasting it). There's absolutely no reason it has to be done at work. Trump was way too harsh but somewhat correct in saying they should be fired. They are employees, and are not paid to stir up political issues on or off the field. Imagine how former veterans feel who are on the same team? It's divisive for the team. I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet, or maybe it has, but I'm surprised a player hasn't tried to promote gay rights in the NFL. I'm not sure how they'd do it, but my point is that's not the right place to do it. Your job is to do your best to win a Superbowl. After work you can be an activist, but even then, prepare for consequences. I want to clarify that what Trump said was stupid. He did the same thing the players are doing, except he can't be fired for it.

Odd, I never said that you said they weren't entitled to an opinion, my comment was clearly sarcasm regarding you not liking that they share their opinions.

As for what you are going to do with your life, apparently you're going to complain when others share their opinions if they don't match your own.

You're trying way too hard.

Really don't have to try, you pretty much do it to yourself lol.

@Stevo_the_gamer said:

@Nick3306 said:

@Stevo_the_gamer said:

You're trying way too hard.

Really don't have to try, you pretty much do it to yourself lol.

You continuously post things and don't explain or defend them in any meaningful way. A great example is your post before this, you had nothing to contribute so you just said I was trying too hard rofl. Even the post before that you took an obvious statement and picked on the wording (it was pretty obvious I was referring sarcastically to your objection to them voicing their opinions) so that you wouldn't have to defend your statement.

@Nick3306 said:

@Stevo_the_gamer said:

You continuously post things and don't explain or defend them in any meaningful way. A great example is your post before this, you had nothing to contribute so you just said I was trying too hard rofl. Even the post before that you took an obvious statement and picked on the wording (it was pretty obvious I was referring sarcastically to your objection to them voicing their opinions) so that you wouldn't have to defend your statement.

I understood your sarcasm hence why I added my tongue in cheek at the end. For someone so keen on telling folks not worry about opinions, you're quite dug in replying to me. ;)

Awesome misdirection by Trump.

-We just found out 21 states had their polling stations hacked during the election (this is a recent development, not digging up old news)
-Feuding (with NUKES!) with North Korea with the maturity of a middle school kid
-Flint still does not have clean water. we still don't have a solution for Standing Rock.
-Three massive hurricanes causing what I can only assume is billions of dollars of damage, leaving many homeless, killing dozens, and more.
-We are going going, back back, to Cali Cali to Afghanistan. Who is excited about that? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
-GOP trying to kill off Americans with another healthcare bill. Then when an ACTUAL Republican like McCain puts country before party, they badmouth him.
-Trump and his cabinet are such a wreck, half of his higher-ups have been fired or resigned, and a special investigation is being done to investigate him.

But no...let's talks about sportsball! HERP DERP!

I mean.... where's the police cams? Oh, they just happen to magically vanish right? like they always "just happen" do when the criminal thug police commit crimes? So the only video we do have is half way through the interaction.

If you're going to call him a liar you could at least wait until the police produce a video, but we both know that wont happen because we both probably know what it shows and we both know they could produce some kind of video given all the officers there, the Casinos, etc. Which, they should be collecting and fighting these claims but again, that wont happen will it? Because right now the biggest organized crime group in the world is the American police.

You're a cop right? So don't act as if you're surprised that one pulled his gun and pointed it at a man for no reason.

My agency does not utilize body cameras, but I have knowledge in that they need to be manually activated; something that isn't always muscle memory when high-risk scenarios/incidents play out. For example, I was dispatched to a report of a stabbing approximately 1.5 miles from where I currently was driving. Due to my close proximity, I didn't even activate my overhead lights and siren to respond as I focused on reading all the details in the text of the call, listening to radio traffic, and finding out which apartment it was located at. All of which I have to do within a couple minutes. Upon arriving at the scene as a solo officer, (which, hindsight is 20-20, I should have waited for a cover unit to arrive with me, but the nearest unit was 5 minutes away), I immediately determined it was *not* a stabbing but merely a domestic disturbance between a boyfriend and a girlfriend. The complainant assumed someone was stabbed because the male half was throwing the knives out the window (along with the rest of the kitchen items, such as, but not limited too, a toaster and a microwave) Because my overhead lights were not activated, my in-car-camera (ICC) was not activated. A mistake of mine, but such incidents are bound to happen based on the totality of the circumstances.

I went off point there for a second, but with respect to the body camera being manually activated (different from an ICC), when you going to an active shooter call. Your mindset and adrenaline are at 200%, you are focused on determining threats and administering emergency first aid if necessary. As you can see, the team went in as a group in the video to secure an extremely complex and large facility. That is a *scary* situation to be involved in that requires good tactics and effective command presence. The point is that I will not fault a first responder in an extreme high risk situation to not have a manually activated body camera on. Mistakes happen all the time when it comes to this equipment.

LVPD opened up an investigation through their *own* accord, as no formal complaint was issued. This was a PR move squarely to jump on a bandwagon.

Yes, I am a cop, and I find it EXTREMELY reasonable for another officer to point his weapon at a potential suspect who MAY have been involved in an ACTIVE SHOOTER scene.

I'm just going to leave this here:

Politics and sports isn't much of a new phenomenon, whether it's in protest (Colin K.'s kneeling during the anthem) or in support (saluting veterans, flyovers), so.... yeah.

Trumpflakes are going to snowflake.

What reverence are you talking about, and how is it unquestioning? If you are privileged and secure enough for people to care if you stand or kneel, then you are more privileged and secure then 99.9% of the rest of the planet. You have been raised above seven billion other people for your ability to play a silly game. The only sign of devotion "required" is that you stand there for a few minutes before you get paid absurd amounts of money to do something that doesn't really matter. You don't have to do anything. Just avoid making a moment of unity and respect all about you.

That is unquestioning reverence the same way eating Taco Bell is an example of unwavering loyalty to Mexico. Clearly the cast of Demolition Man are all traitors to America.... Rabble rabble rabble!

Mostly what I find unsettling is the idea that kneeling during the Anthem is somehow being portrayed as a sign of disrespect. I honestly wonder if anyone with strong opinions on the subject has bothered to think it through. When the heck did a free individual choosing to kneel stop being one of the most profound displays of reverence and respect, and turn into a protest!? Is this really what society considers Activism these days? Quick everyone, kneel when trump walks in! That will show the curr what we really think about them!!!

Maybe we should do a better job training officers? No?

Maybe we should do a better job weeding through those who cannot seem to compose themselves during high pressure situations? No?

But where is all the other footage? Its Vegas, there's camera's EVERYWHERE. And quite honestly i refuse to believe that none of those other police didnt turn on their camera... or... i guess i do believe it. But if thats the case than we need to fire people yes? We cannot dismiss how important it is that police take these measures.

Yah.... once it hits national news if they want to avoid the Justice Department, they probably have to.

I agree....... now why did they think he was the shooter? They were reacting to hearing shots and seeing people hiding and fleeing... .they had no idea who the shooter was. And even if they felt the need to question this man, again, they had zero reason to suspect him of being a shooter (except LWB = Living while black).

This is why people take issue with police. You guys can never seem to admit any kind of wrong doing by your fellow officers. Instead of focusing on how badly the police fucked up at every turn in this situation, you focus on calling the VICTIM a liar and then moving on to justifying a situation that was imaginary.

@kod: I'm referring to the "how dare you!" attitude that has been taken to these protests and several others. This is one of the most inoffensive and milquetoast forms of protest imaginable, yet a lot of people are acting as if it's a form of heresy.

It makes even less sense to me when the topic of protest is the perceived abuse of a specific demographic by the enforcement agency of nation represented by the flag/anthem. Regardless of whether or not that perception is correct, if I perceived that to be the case I would be inclined to show more disrespect to the symbol of that oppressor than merely kneeling during it's anthem.

The US isn't infallible and protesting against it isn't heresy. We shouldn't act like that's the case.

@Stevo_the_gamer: And yet again you dodge defending or explaining your original post by posting some nonsense about me replying to you on a discussion forum lmao.

@kod: While I understand why many people may doubt the word of police due to incidents in the past, training and weeding out like you suggest isn't always going to work. No amount of training is going to make a decent person not rush into danger to save a life, or stop a father and husband from trying to ensure that his wife and kids don't become a widow and without a father.

Training isn't going to weed out people that are able to adapt to training but freeze up in a real-world situation; the same thing happens in the military when someone is a superstar during training and they freeze up when the real bullets start flying or their truck got hit by an IED.

It would be nice if we didn't have these issues, but as long as we have people taught since birth not to trust the police and as long as we have officers that are afraid that their actions could result in their death or incarceration anytime, we're going to have issues. The best we can hope for is is for the racists to stay out of the force.

Stevo is the stereotypical pseudo-intellectual who doesn't actually have anything insightful to say and thus only speaks in code and dodges when confronted. A lot of mods are like that on here.

Who is claiming the United States is infallible? I mean one of the glories of America is that people can have fierce but non-violent debates about what constitutes proper social behavior. What part of all this exemplifies being treated like a heretic? Is it how the criticized individuals not only are allowed to keep all their frivolous wealth but continue to be showered with it. Perhaps it is how defending them not only costs you nothing, but instead generates social currency you can spend to impress like minded individuals?

How very like the Spanish Inquisition. No wonder no one expects it.

He doesn't get this worked up over literal Nazi's. I have a feeling America voted in a white supremacist.

Of course, the more training the merrier; assuming you're able to convince the legislature, county, and city government to allot the additional funds to pay for the training - and overtime needed to fill in the spots when officers are out on training. I look at policetraining.net all the time, but the vast majority of the time, I have to pay for my own training because the department doesn't have the funds necessary (especially when I have already reached my 'yearly' allotted cap for training which is the minimum to satisfy POST requirements).

What sort of "weeding" do you propose to account for "high pressure situations" - scenario based training? We already do that. Stress based training to the point of exhaustion, again, we already do that. You're never really going to take into account for actual life-threatening scenarios in controlled environments. We did active shooter training with SIM rounds and the like, but to actually put one in the middle of a gunfight, that is something hard to simulate. The smell of flesh, gunpowder, screaming, and the like, it's something that is hard to comprehend. The prior military (except for the POGs) understand this, which is why half my academy were excellent resources to talk too and train with.

You're not going to see all the footage until someone makes a formal request; but with the investigation still ongoing, we might not know the conclusion for a while. It's easy to want instant-gratification, but you also do not want to poison the water hole.

And that's the thing with "national news" - it's a purpose driven machine, Michael was pursuing a narrative way after the perceived incident. I would assume other individuals within his immediate circle were the ones to bring him to that path, but that's purely speculative.

I cannot explain to you what the given officer's thoughts were at that time; but I can levy some thoughts on the mindset of what doesn't appear to be right. For example, did the officer have eye-contact with Michael and then he attempted to flee, or was the officer motioning for Michael to come out of cover to escape behind the officers (if you watch the video, the security and LVPD were assisting in getting people out) and then he fled in a different direction? The facts are scarce other than he *ran* away from officers, officers gave chase, he ran through people and jumped over a rail into traffic. A reasonable officer would assume his behavior constitutes reasonable suspicion to DETAIN him, and when detaining a suspect who MAY BE armed, you will have your firearm out and ready.

Why did he ran? I do know. I can levy some idea on the matter based on a recent call for service that comes to memory. Last month, in a nicer neighborhood, a neighbor called 911 and was concerned about a black male adult in the bushes in his front yard. One of our unmarked units was in the area and responded to this "suspicious person" call, which is a routine common call. The text of the call was simply a black male adult with a white shirt and blue jeans hiding in the bushes. The two man unmarked unit went on scene and made contact with the individual (who matched the description) on the sidewalk in front of the residence. The individual was uncooperative in answering questions such as his name, what he was doing, and kept putting his hands in his pocket. Suddenly, he runs away from both officers and starts hitting fences going through backyards. Multiple units now arrive on scene (me included) along with our helicopter overhead which voices that he threw something while running in another yard. Spotlight and K9 arrive which, using overhead announcements via our helicopter, were able to convince him to jump back over the fences and go into custody. We were unable to determine what was thrown, but we assumed it was a branch of a bush that was caught on his shirt while he was running.

His family lives next door to the residence, which they all come out screaming police brutality and attempt to intervene with our officers forcing us to detain their family as they were actively trying to fight officers. Only voice of reason in the house was the mother who was able to talk to her children and rest of the immediate family to calm down. Why did he ran? That was the question on all of our minds, because he watched the news and he's scared of the police. That's what he family told us, and that's what he told us. He did have a small misdemeanor warrant, but he wasn't aware of it (allegedly). So maybe that's why he ran, but as law enforcement, we can't assume someone is running because they're scared (innocent). I can think of three foot pursuits I've been in within the last three months where a handgun was recovered. THREE. All of which were loaded with a round in the chamber.

The victim isn't telling the truth here, or maybe he is so blinded by his inner circle that he simply isn't remembering the details anymore as with that, things have changed.

Sorry for the wall of text. lol

Nah, it just amuses me when people (even Canadians) try to discuss matters they have no experience in - every now and then I run into something so patently silly that it won't be worth responding too. You should feel privileged, my fellow Canadian, for I am responding to thee!

The solution here is that cops should stop killing unarmed black men, but naw, cops seems utterly incapable of self-reflection as evidenced by the "Blue Lives Matter" clowns.

Dodging while busting out cringy attempts at witty banter is still dodging, m8.

Really? Because its not like we have not done a better job of this in the past. In fact, this whole issue seems to be a collation of us stopping holding police responsible, expanding their ability to remove our rights, loosening requirements for being an officer, etc. etc. etc.

Yah, training will absolutely do this if you have proper training standards....... but that wouldnt even be the point, the point would not be to weed people out during training. The weeding out comes before and after the training.

And don't compare police to military. Military are in war time situations, police are here to protect our rights. Not to freak out every time they see something in someones hand.

This is the biggest bullshit ive ever seen.

1. Not many people tell their children not to trust police. Simply that there are some who are good, some who are bad, so be leery of that. Which is 100% true and would be 100% false...errr..99% false, if we actually held police accountable.

2. 1 is a RESPONSE....AAAA RRREEESSSSPPPPOONNNNSSSEEEE. If you're even beginning to suggest that the problem starts with citizens telling their children not to trust police, and then the police do the exact thing those people are afraid and its a problem with the citizens, then you're full of shit. Even if that was the actual case, it would still be a problem with our law enforcement. How is it some of you people cannot grasp how important it is that we get the first line of our legal system acting correctly and legally?

If this is the best you can hope for and the best you can think we can do, you're being lazy, you have zero concept of how our police forces used to be entirely different and not do these things and quite frankly, its pathetic.

Take a knee as a non-violent protest: "Son of a bitch"

March in a neo-nazi rally: "Very fine people"