Trump's NFL diversion and racial injustice in the U.S.

For over four days the country has heard President Donald Trump bewail the silent protests of NFL football players by kneeling during the national anthem. Their reason is police brutality, often resulting in death, by white police affairs, of black citizens, whether they are doing wrong, suspected of doing wrong, or even leaving the scene of a crime. The problem is not new for the United States, but what is new, for the last few years are videos, some by the so-called dash cams, video cameras,mounted on the dashboards of police vehicles, but very often cell phone videos of the wrongdoing.

The most infamous has been that of the shooting 16 times of African American teenager, in Chicago, Laquan McDonald, a tape that was suppressed by then State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, in light of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s reelection.  The case galvanized the city, but also the nation, as incident after incident was reported in the media, of black men, in particular, being shot, or killed. And in one remarkable case a CPD officer was photographed, after a perpetrator was killed, standing with his foot on the body, like a big game hunter.

Then there was the accidental shooting of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones, by police, in 2015, that highlighted the inadequate training in handling mentally unstable aggressors; and once again garnered protest and outrage, when the review association concluded that charges should not be filed against the officers.

No discussion of police brutality, and malfeasance, would be complete without the story of Seattle Seahawks player Michael Bennett who after attending the Mayweather-McGregor fight, in Las Vegas, earlier this summer, heard gunshots, and with a crowd of others ran, and was later confronted by police who held a gun to his head, saying, “I’m gonna blow your fucking head off.”  He also had another officer’s knee in his back and was taken into custody to be released later. Police denied that there was racial profiling, and claimed he was only in custody for ten minutes.

This is the type of maltreatment that has resulted in the NFL protests, and the one that Trump waded into referring to the protestors as “sons of bitches,” and that has dominated the news cycle, for so long. The fact that 70 percent of NFL football players are African American, further fans the racism, implied, if not inherent in the president's statements.

It’s certainly Trump’s pattern that whenever he is seemingly ineffectual on national, and international matters, that he creates a media blitz, replete with rallies of cheering crowds, so that his own weakness as a leader can be deflected. With the problem of North Korea looming larger and larger on the horizon, especially after he called North Korean leader Kim Jong  Un, “Rocket Man” in his recent United Nations speech.

Administration critics have also noted his weak response to the hurricanes blistering the southern parts of the country, and now Puerto Rico, a U.S. possession; it’s clear from the inadequate response that Trump needs to deflect the focus far from him.

What many in the country have not seen, or not wanted to acknowledge, is the continued problem of maltreatment by the nation’s police against black people. While it is only fair to say, that this is not done by all police in all instances, the the durability of the problem requires  specific solutions. Some cities have been more successful than others, in creating them, but many still struggle to do so.

Public response has varied widely, with public disavowal of the president s coming from such unlikely quarters, such as Tom Brady, who has been friendly with Trump. But, there are those who, using social media, against such movements such as “Black Lives Matter,” post on Facebook, pictures with the hashtag, “White Lives Matter,” showing white police officers, in front of squad cars. That prompted President Obama to state that the counter protest was not about a loss of value for white lives, but an affirmation of black lives.

In contrast, a recent Quinnipiac University poll, showed that while three-quarters of African American respondents, were in favor of the athlete’s protest, a much larger number of white Americans did not, showing not only the intractable problem of race, but also the differences in perception of race, by its black and white citizens.

For some, like Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner the issue is not about race, at all, but about patriotism. In his statement, he said, “To me they are disrespecting the foundation of our country, the veterans who risked their lives for our democracy, and the men and women who fight every day and make the ultimate sacrifice.”

While Rauner’s response is in line with the president's (whom he has heretofore had not opined about) it does give credence to a culture war, which, in and of itself, lends to another diversion, and even some oddball statements, such as the one that Sarah Huckabee Sanders made saying that if the protests were about the police, the protesters should be focused on the police on the field.

The problem is not simply the egregious conduct of some police officers, but at its heart the protests, at its most basic level, are about racial inequality in the United States. The police behavior is a symptom of that inequality.

President John F. Kennedy noted, in a televised speech in June of 1963, after the National Guard was pressed to protect the enrollment of two black students to the University of Alabama, that, “One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.”

Since that time equality has been made in some areas, but not others; with the seemingly impossible election of a black man, to the presidency. Barack Obama, faced not only fierce opposition by his Republican opposition, much of it was race based, as former President Jimmy Carter, publicly acknowledged.

Obama also faced nearly daily slanders, racist cartoons, and jokes, against his goals and intentions, no matter how noble they were; and he was labelled, as a secret Muslim, another growing prejudice for America.

In the none too distant past, during the 1968 Olympics as the U.S. National Anthem played, American gold medalist,Tommie Smith, and bronze medalist John Carlos, held their fists aloft in a black power salute to protest racial injustice that had torn apart the fabric of the nation, with race riots, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr, and Robert F. Kennedy.

After their wins, they were stripped of their medals by the head of the International Olympic Committee.

With the Trump remarks, (that he can’t let go of, or refute), much like his regrettable comments after white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, developed a groundswell of support in his appearance in Alabama, ostensibly to support the runoff candidate, Luther Strange, for the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, when he became attorney general.

Unremarkably, considering the location, the crowd ate it up, reported National Public Radio, earning the 45th president of the United States, the dubious title of “The Great Divider.”

Returning to the problems of the CPD, as they attempt to grapple with the complaints, and reactions not only from the McDonald case, but also the Department of Justice investigation, under the Obama administration, from then Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

She reported that DOJ “found “reasonable cause” that the police department engaged in a pattern of using excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. She blamed that partially on “severely deficient training procedures” and “accountability systems.”

The Chicago Police brass has now said that all police officers must face 40 hours of training on the use of force, but now, “The union representing rank-and-file Chicago police officers has asked the Illinois Labor Relations Board to block the department from implementing new policies regarding the use of force.

In response, “Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham said the Police Department violated its contract with the FOP, because the changes were not negotiated with the union,” reported CBS radio affiliate, WBBM Chicago, this Sunday, on its radio program, “At Issue,” where he was interviewed.

Kevin Graham

Graham said the department also did not consider the effect the new policies would have on the way police do their job, and that he was concerned,and objects to the training held at police stations, where the ebb and flow of police operations would be impeded.

Saying that the police “don’t get the credit that they deserve,” for doing a tough job, he also remarked that he did not subscribe to the “few bad apples theory,” promoted by some, and that he felt that the Civilian Office Of Police Accountability, the replacement of the old Independent Police Review Authority, itself, needed citizen oversight, supervision to avoid unneeded punishment of police, such as sitting in a squad car, smoking a cigarette, to which Dellimore expressed some incredulity.

IPRA was roundly condemned by community activists for never convicting abusive, and negligent police, and the hope was that COPA would be able to change that history.

Graham also objected to the longer form of the old contact cards, used whenever police are called in to respond to complaints of an individual’s behavior, that now also have to be entered into a computer.

Hiis remarks express a seemingly unwillingness to take accountability for police actions, and behavior, something that even a rank-and-file office worker has to do. This certainly makes the necessity of change in police accountability, in Chicago, an uphill battle.

On the national scene Trump has drawn his battle lines, asking crowds to boycott NFL teams that employ protesting athletes, and also for television boycotts of NFL games, a move that will garner much attention, and spilled ink, and anxiety among advertisers and team owners, but also, and most importantly, take attention from his own inadequacies, and avoid the real problem, of racial inequality in the United States.