This is fantastic. Trying to drive away viewers before the season even starts
Ed Reed's shirt he wore to #HallofFameGame features pictures of Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and Baltimore's Freddie Grey. (Having trouble identifying bottom left.) https://t.co/rQ2EgqFmJY
— Ben Krimmel (@BenKrimmel) August 2, 2019
Someone sent me a link to this shirt. The thing is, Trayvon Martin was not killed by a killed, but, a private citizen who feared for his life from an unruly, violent teenager. And the shirt is explicitely positioned as black people killed by cops.
Then there’s Michael Brown, who attacked a police officer in his car, tried to take his firearm, ran away, then charged the officer.
Alston Sterling was shot when he was resisting arrest and reaching for the gun in his pocket. Bland committed suicide in jail, and, while there were certainly some poor procedures in place, she was in jail for assaulting an officer. No officer was found guilty in the death of Freddie Gray, who had been arrested for having an illegal weapon.
The thing is, Ed is more than welcome to use his 1st Amendment Right for this. And we’re able to use our 1st A Rights to criticize this. And our freedom of association to not watch the NFL. The people who love this shirt mostly won’t be watching the NFL to start with.
