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| Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett |
But as a former professional football player and an African-American who is physically larger than the average Joe, I understand first-hand what it's like to be singled out by some members of private security or law enforcement simply because of the color of my skin and the dimensions of my body.
So I stand with Michael Bennett.
Like him I know what it's like to be an undrafted free agent defensive end in the NFL after playing Division I football in college; and I know what it's like to be a young man of color in a high-profile profession in a predominantly white community.
So after reading his open letter about his disturbing encounter with members of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department after the recent Mayweather-McGregor fight, I was pissed.
Like thousands of other people, Bennett was in Vegas for the fight.
As he was walking back to his hotel around 1:30am, the sound of gunshots rang out somewhere in the vicinity of Drai's Nightclub in the Cromwell Casino.
When members of the Las Vegas MPD arrived at the scene, hundreds of people were pouring out of the casino onto the street trying to get away from the area.
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| Patrons exiting the Cromwell Casino after gunshots rang out after the Mayweather-McGregor fight in Vegas |
With no physical description of the alleged shooter a group of LVMPD officers began approaching the casino and saw him running.
They chased him and forced him to lie facedown on the street while one of the officers pointed a gun at his head and threatened to "blow his head off" if he moved.
Bennett said that as he lay there in the street, it occurred to him that he might not ever see his wife and two daughters again - and that it felt like an eternity as he lay there cuffed with an officer pointing a handgun at him for something he didn't do.
Bennett claims that he kept asking the officers why he was being detained and they said nothing to him as one officer pressed a knee into his back so hard it was difficult for him to breathe as his hands were cuffed so tight his fingers went numb.
He was eventually released after police determined he had nothing to do with the reported gunshots.
After Bennett posted his open letter about the incident on social media, the story quickly blew up in mainstream media.
In the wake of mounting criticism of the officer's treatment of Bennett, on Friday Kevin McMahill, Undersheriff of the LVMPD held a press conference to give the department's account of what happened.
He claimed that Bennett wasn't singled out because of the color of his skin, but because he, like hundreds of other people in the area, was running away from the scene.
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| Michael Bennett being cuffed by an LVMPD officer |
To support that conclusion (even without a full investigation of the incident being completed) he expressed doubts that Bennett's being chased and handcuffed was a case of racial profiling because the officers who were involved were both Hispanic.
But what, if anything, does that prove?
Minnesota PD officer Jeronimo Yanez was Hispanic.
He's the guy who flipped out and fatally shot Philando Castille seven times at point blank range during a traffic stop after the innocent cafeteria worker reached to get his ID - and that was after he'd pulled Castille over because he thought he looked like a wanted African-American burglary suspect.
I'm not saying the two LVMPD officers are racist, but let's be honest, they rolled up to a chaotic scene responding to a report of shots fired where hundreds of people were trying to get to safety.
They have no description of the shooter but they see a 6'4" black guy with a beard running and out of everyone in the area they go after him - only he wasn't the shooter, or a criminal.
He was a gainfully-employed, married father of two who attended college who was trying to get back to his hotel room and trying not to get shot by some nutbag with a gun popping off shots in a crowded public space.
But the LVMPD cops didn't see that, they just saw a large black guy - something which seems to trigger a sort of unconscious automated response in some police officers in this country.
I've been stopped by police before for the same reason, so I know what that kind of humiliation and anger feels like.
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| Colin Kaepernick kneeling with 49'ers teammates |
Even though Freedom of Expression is enshrined in the Constitution, it irked some NFL fans and cops alike.
The same fans who pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars a year for tickets.
Some of the same fans who walk around wearing jerseys with player's names and numbers on them, and collectively bet billions of dollars a year on NFL games, basically get offended when some of those players express their personal views on race or politics.
To me there's something remarkably hypocritical about expressing adulation for NFL players, but wanting them to shut up when it comes to exercising their right to bring attention to the worsening racial discrimination in this country, and how it impacts their lives as human beings.
Under the current Republican White House and Justice Department, the respective leaders of which are both on the record as saying that they will not use the power of the federal government to address police departments where racially discriminatory policing is shown to be a problem, police oversight isn't going to happen.
So it's up to individual citizens to take action to bring attention to the issue.
And NFL players, regardless of their race or ethnicity, have a right to do that which is protected under the First Amendment Right to Free Speech - period.
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| Cleveland Browns p[layers kneeling August 21st |
In fact it's going to be a subject of conversation and media attention throughout the season.
Members of the Cleveland Browns knelt during the national anthem before a preseason game against the Giants two weeks ago.
Not just to bring attention to discriminatory policing in America.
But also to support Kaepernick - by the way a white player named Seth DeValve knelt with the Browns too, becoming the first white NFL player to do so.
So rather than pretending it doesn't exist, the NFL had better figure out a way to take a much more comprehensive stance on the issue - or risk alienating many of the players who make up it's rosters and account for billions of dollars a year in revenue from broadcast rights, merchandise, ticket sales, stadium concessions and advertising revenue.
Oh and while we're on the subject of football, did you read about Texas A&M head football coach Kevin Sumlin's family receiving racist hate mail following the Aggies' opening season loss at UCLA?
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| Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin |
Sumlin is a married father of four with a respectable 79-38 record in five seasons at Texas A&M (including an 11-2 record his first season), one of only seven African-American head coaches at major Division I football programs.
My sense is that the letter, mailed from the Houston Country Club, is yet another sad reflection of the normalization of racial and ethnic hatred cultivated by Trump's embrace of white nationalism and open contempt for undocumented immigrants working in this country - aside from his own wife Melania of course.
As Ben Mathis-Lilley reported for Slate back on February 23rd, the former Melania Knauss violated the terms of her U.S. B1 / B2 tourist visa in the 1990's by earning thousands of dollars as a model before obtaining legal permission to work in the United States.
Because she lied by not disclosing the fact that she'd worked illegally in the U.S. on her H1-B visa (green card) application, under the restrictive immigration measures put into place as a result of executive orders issued by her current husband, she would have been prioritized for deportation because she "engaged in fraud or willful misrepresentation in connection with any official matter or application before a governmental agency."
So I guess Trump's self-righteous zeal about securing our borders is situational and depends upon one's religion, skin color, country of origin and of course whether or not the undocumented immigrant in question is boinking Trump.
Anyway we'll see what happens with the Michael Bennett situation in the coming days, there were reportedly some 126 different remote video cameras in the area where he was arrested so it shouldn't be long before we get to see a better sense of what really happened that night.
Not surprisingly, the LVMPD officer who pointed the gun at Bennett and threatened to blow his head off did not have his body-cam turned on when the incident happened. (Shocker)
But regardless, maybe this incident will prompt some NFL fans who expressed displeasure at Kaepernick's kneeling to step back and think about why he started kneeling in the first place.
The reason is real and it's still happening in this country - perhaps its time that NFL owners, executives and fans stand up for the players who are taking a knee for justice and human rights.
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