Colin Kaepernick refuses “to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people”...

Phil Mushnick

Meanwhile, along NFL sidelines, players were exploiting the national anthem to let all know that America, which twice elected a black president, is racist.

Marshawn Lynch, another who demands respect in exchange for none, sits during the anthem.

Lynch three times has been sanctioned for ? acts during games, twice for grabbing his crotch after TDs. That he has been so indulged by the NFL that he has not been suspended for his serial obscene behavior doesn’t deter him from demonstrating that he has better things to do than stand for the national anthem.

stringer bell wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBs12Ed_0Pk

There always that one ? who comes out nowhere just to..

Tucson police officer pushes boundaries with viral rants


When Brandon Tatum starts talking into his camera, you get the feeling he will burst if he doesn’t unload right then.

Tatum, a Tucson police officer, started his Sept. 25 YouTube rant this way: “Alright, we’re going to talk. Now, y’all have made me talk.”

He went on to lambaste NFL players who have protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem. And a segment of the country embraced him, viewing the video more than 410,000 times, making him a viral video star of the week once again.

“For all you people who don’t understand, let me clarify this for you,” he said. “It’s not about the act of protesting. It’s not about the act of believing in something and pursuing it. It’s the way you’re doing it.

“I don’t know how many times people have to say this: What does the American flag have to do with your perceived oppression? What does the national anthem have to do with these issues that people are bringing up? The flag and the national anthem have nothing to do with what you’re talking about.”

Tatum, who for a time was a spokesman for the Tucson Police Department, first gained a wider online audience in March 2016, when Donald Trump visited Tucson for a campaign rally, and he posted a video slamming the protesters who showed up. Since then, his rants have largely been avidly pro-Trump and anti-liberal, not unlike what you’d hear on right-wing talk radio.

Videos with smashmouth names like “Kathy Griffin should be in prison” and “Shut up about Russia already!” are mixed in with some introspective, analytical pieces like “Why do I not feel oppressed like other black people?” and “Why Black Men choose White Women over Black Women.”

Tatum is careful not to suggest he is representing the Tucson Police Department when he gets on camera, but it’s been widely known since last year’s Trump rally video that he is a police officer. When Fox News did a piece on his latest viral rant, it identified him in the writing along the bottom of the screen as a “Tucson, AZ police officer.”

These are the boundaries that city policy and the police administration worry about employees crossing. The department has a 2½ page guideline in their general orders explaining how employees may use social media like YouTube in their private lives.

Among the prohibited postings: “Any act or statement, or any other form of speech that ridicules, maligns, disparages, or otherwise indicates bias against any race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, ethnicity, disability, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, familial status, marital status or other protected status.”

I spoke with Chief Chris Magnus and his chief of staff, Mike Silva, Thursday, and they explained it’s a complicated area of rules and laws, with plenty of gray area.

“The general rule is, in their individual capacities, members can speak on what the law calls issues of public concern,” Silva said.

But there are special worries for officers who post online and may be grilled by a criminal-defense attorney in court.

“Officers can put themselves in a bad place in terms of their own credibility in terms of providing testimony,” Silva said. “They can create their own impeachment material by going off and pontificating.”

Magnus weighs in occasionally on social media, usually about police issues and occasionally critical of President Trump or his administration. He said officers just need to work to stay within the bounds laid out by the rules.

“I certainly do not share a good many of his views,” Magnus said of Tatum, “but I have to acknowledge that he’s pretty savvy about the way he does it so as not to find himself on the other side of that line.”

On Thursday, Tatum tweeted out an invitation from Alex Jones, host of the conspiracy-mongering InfoWars show, to be interviewed by Jones. To me, accepting an interview with Jones would be crossing the line into behavior that is unacceptable from a known Tucson police officer.

Among many other conspiracies Jones has promoted is the idea that the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax. His theories have convinced some listeners to go to Newtown and harass parents of children who died in the massacre. Earlier this year, Jones was forced to retract lies he told about refugee “rapists” working at a Chobani yogurt plant in Twin Falls, Idaho.

But even appearing on Jones’ show may be within the rules, Magnus said, as long as Tatum doesn’t present himself as a representative of the department and sticks within the rules in what he says.

That’s too bad.

NBA reiterates to teams: Stand for anthem

The NBA sent a memo late Friday to teams reinforcing its rule that players and coaches stand for the national anthem, and suggesting other ways in which they might address the recent protest movement sweeping across the NFL and other sports.

The memo, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN, was distributed by deputy commissioner Mark Tatum. It instructs teams that "the league office will determine how to deal with any possible instance in which a player, coach, or trainer does not stand for the anthem."

The memo states that individual teams "do not have the discretion to waive" the rule that players, coaches and staff stand for the anthem. The league has the discretion to discipline players who violate the rule. It is not clear if the league would exercise it in the event of any protest. The league also does not want teams independently disciplining players, sources say, and has encouraged open dialogue within teams.

In the memo, Tatum suggests teams might address the current political climate by having players and coaches give a joint pregame address at their first home games.

"This could include a message of unity and how the team is committed to bringing the community together this season," the memo states.

The memo also suggests teams might prepare a video tribute or public service announcement featuring "team leadership speaking about the issues they care about."

The memo comes a day after commissioner Adam Silver said he expects players to stand for the national anthem.

Last season, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem as a means of protesting social and racial injustice, and police brutality. Dozens of NFL players followed suit last Sunday, two days after President Donald Trump said owners should fire players who protest during the anthem. The Dallas Cowboys locked arms and knelt just before the national anthem before their Monday Night Football game. Before the national anthem ahead of Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, players from the Los Angeles Sparks and Minnesota Lynx locked arms; L.A. players then left the floor during the anthem. The Sparks repeated the protest ahead of Game 2.

The NBA is seeking a delicate balance in how it responds to the wave of protests in sports and the general political climate surrounding the administration of Trump. Silver and Michele Roberts, executive director of the players union, have consistently urged players to address issues that matter to them. Tatum's memo does the same. It also suggests other ways in which teams can "continue to develop impactful community programs," including mentorship programs, community gatherings, using basketball itself to "build bridges" between segments of a community and inviting community leaders to speak to teams.

Several players went further on media day and explicitly condemned Trump and his policies. Some owners, while in some cases sympathetic to those views, have expressed concern about such statements alienating fans who might support the president, sources tell ESPN.

The league in the past week has sent teams at least two other memos outlining ways other than anthem protests in which teams can engage their communities and address current events. In one memo, sent on Tuesday, the league informed teams that beginning in October, the U.S. Conference of Mayors "will host a series of community conversations and other events with NBA teams to engage young people, law enforcement, and local leaders."

Roberts told The Undefeated's Marc Spears on Friday that the union will respond to any protest-related discipline from the league office "when it happens."

This Black Cop Proves That Not All Skinfolk Are Kinfolk

Angela HelmToday 12:10pm

Brandon Tatum is a police officer in Arizona, and he is a former college football player for ASU who has become the darling of conservatives because of a video he made belittling those football players who are kneeling before the national anthem to bring light to police brutality and injustice in America.

In a six-and-a-half minute clip, watched more than 50 million times, according to Alex Jones (yeah, he’s credible) Tatum, like many other people who willfully choose to make the NFL protests about something that they are not, says that it’s not the protest itself but the WAY people are protesting that he has an issue with.

“It’s not about the act of protesting, of believing in something and pursuing. It’s the way you’re doing it,” Tatum began. “Listen, what does the American flag have to do with your perceived oppression? What does the national anthem have to do with these issues that people are bringing up? It’s a separate issue. The flag and the anthem have nothing to do with what you are talking about!”

So first Tatum is saying that black people are making up their oppression; then he’s saying that the flag has nothing to do with this so-called discrimination. On that he’s right. Flags can’t be racist, but people who choose to ignore oppression based on race (and their black lackeys) can.

He continues, “You’re talking about an anthem of hope and unity within this country … about a flag that represents hard work, dedication, blood, sweat and tears, sacrifice, and the thing that makes me most upset is that you have these people who turn around and take a knee and want to attribute all the negativity to the flag and the anthem and don’t want to attribute the positive.”

In the words of Kanye West, Hannnh???? Didn’t Colin Kaepernick, who began this movement, say that he was kneeling during the anthem to bring light to the injustice of this country as it relates to its black citizens? So why would Brandon even fix his mouth to say the negativity is about the flag?

Tatum then notes that the flag gave black people “the opportunity to go from corn fields and picking cotton to the president of the United States of America,” and to go “from being segregated to you paying millions of dollars to play sports. And you know who’s watching ya’ll? White people.”

Um. So the flag liberated people from slavery? Oh, I thought it was tens of thousands of those who fought, bled and actually died during the Civil War and then the civil rights movement. Silly me.

“I’m sick of the lame excuses,” Tatum then says, and then had the nerve to of course bring up Martin Luther King Jr. “because he did [his protesting] with respect, integrity.”

But as The Root writer Michael Harriot noted in his piece, “How to Protest Without Offending White People,” 63 percent of people were against King’s tactics in 1966.

Tatum goes on: “You really care about black lives? You don’t need to be taking a knee. You need to be out there doing something in the community,” things like voting, passing legislation, joining the police, and other productive endeavors.

“Do something about it!” Tatum bellows. “Quit taking a knee and protesting and crying like a baby, because all you’re doing is ? people off. That’s all you’re doing.”

I thought Kaepernick was in the community donating millions of dollars and talking to young adults and volunteering. But I guess you can’t do both (that is, protest and be active in the community, which most community activists do).

The Tuscon police officer then wonders what good has been accomplished since Colin Kaepernick first took a knee last year. “Has unemployment changed in the black community? Has the abortion rate dropped? Has illegitimacy dropped? More entrepreneurs? More jobs?”

I’ll tell you what has happened (besides—dear ? —? white people off!!!): More people have talked about injustice in America and white people are being shown for the racists that they say they are not.

So there’s that.

If you can stomach the rest of his drivel, feel free. You can also catch Tatum on Fox News, of course.


I hope those 20 pieces of silver were worth it, Brandon.