Five St. Louis Rams players made a Ferguson-related statement before their NFL contest against the Oakland Raiders on Sunday. The handful in question — Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Chris Givens and Kenny Britt — raised their arms in a "hands up, don't shoot" fashion that Michael Brown supporters have flashed for months.
This caused quite a stir on social media and resulted in a stern response from the St. Louis Police Officers Association. Here are a couple samples from the lengthy statement (via KSDK):
The St. Louis Police Officers Association is profoundly disappointed with the members of the St. Louis Rams football team who chose to ignore the mountains of evidence released from the St. Louis County Grand Jury this week and engage in a display that police officers around the nation found tasteless, offensive and inflammatory.
The gesture has become synonymous with assertions that Michael Brown was innocent of any wrongdoing and attempting to surrender peacefully when Wilson, according to some now-discredited witnesses, gunned him down in cold blood.
The saltiest (ex) cop of all appears to be SLPOA business manager Jeff Roorda, who has an interesting professional history, to say the least.
"All week long, the Rams and the NFL were on the phone with the St. Louis Police Department asking for assurances that the players and the fans would be kept safe from the violent protesters who had rioted, looted, and burned buildings in Ferguson," Roorda said. "Our officers have been working 12-hour shifts for over a week, they had days off including Thanksgiving cancelled so that they could defend this community from those on the streets that perpetuate this myth that Michael Brown was executed by a brother police officer and then, as the players and their fans sit safely in their dome under the watchful protection of hundreds of St. Louis's finest, they take to the turf to call a now-exonerated officer a murderer, that is way out-of-bounds, to put it in football parlance."
Roorda said that the group is demanding a "very public apology" from the Rams and the league.
"I know that there are those that will say that these players are simply exercising their First Amendment rights," Roorda said. "Well I've got news for people who think that way, cops have first amendment rights too, and we plan to exercise ours."
Here is the pre-game display from Sunday:
Some Rams players took the field in a “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” pose: https://t.co/pZNWp9YG4B pic.twitter.com/06cWGCXCvE
— SB Nation (@SBNation) November 30, 2014
