Last weekend, Donald Trump tried to bully NFL players and owners into submission by calling anyone who takes a knee during the national anthem a “son of a bitch” who should be fired. As it turned out, he opened a can of worms. Week 3 of the NFL season saw a wave of players either kneeling or linking arms–in some cases, joined by owners.
Well, apparently the top uniformed law enforcement officer in Michigan didn’t get the memo. She saw fit to share a meme calling anyone who takes a knee is a “degenerate.”
Sometime on Sunday night, Michigan State Police director Colonel Kriste Kibbey Etue fired off this meme on Facebook.
The image appears to have originated on Breitbart’s Facebook feed. It’s gone severely viral on social media. Breitbart’s original post has been shared over 600,000 times as of Wednesday night, and a search for the hashtag “#WeStand” on Facebook and Twitter turns this image up fairly often.
While it was initially only visible to Etue’s Facebook friends, the criticism came in fast and hard once the Detroit Free Press learned about it on Tuesday night. Much of that criticism has come from Etue’s own ranks; a number of black troopers were appalled that their director would post something like this.
Leonard Mungo, an attorney representing a number of current and former troopers who are in legal disputes with the state police, said that Etue’s decision to share that meme reveals “kind of a dangerous mindset for someone in her powerful position.” He believes that it’s “scary” that the head of the state police didn’t seem to understand that “America is defined by its freedoms”–including the right to peaceful protest.
By Tuesday night, Etue realized she’d stepped in it. She issued an apology via the state police’s official social media feeds.
A message from Col. Kriste Kibbey Etue regarding Facebook post: pic.twitter.com/PFjx5reyVI
— Michigan State Police (@MichStatePolice) September 27, 2017
Weak sauce, Colonel. If you seriously think that no one could have been offended by that post–especially coming from the head of the state police–then your moral compass is as warped as that of Trump.
In case you missed it, Colonel, what really outraged the players, including many who hadn’t previously taken a knee, is that Trump targeted them with harsher language than he used for the Nazis, racists, and white supremacists who descended on Charlottesville in August. These are people who were actively spoiling for violence, murdered an innocent woman, trashed her online, planned to crash her funeral, and bombarded her mother with death threats.
And yet, you apparently thought that players who were merely taking part in peaceful protest against police brutality, as well as an attempt by the president to bully them into submission, were “degenerates”? It’s one thing for an ordinary citizen to share something like this. But for the head of a state police agency, especially someone who is a 30-year police veteran, to do so? It’s only fair to wonder if you really understand what it means to protect and serve.
For now, anyway, Governor Rick Snyder is satisfied. He told reporters that he doesn’t intend to push out Etue.
However, others aren’t as willing to cut Etue any slack. The ACLU of Michigan, for instance, isn’t backing down.
For her original comments and disastrous apology, we call upon Director Kriste Etue to resign immediately. https://t.co/XMIX6BpP9d
— ACLU of Michigan (@ACLUofMichigan) September 27, 2017
Too often, police officers, and the departments they work for, are not held accountable for their actions.
— ACLU of Michigan (@ACLUofMichigan) September 27, 2017
If these actions are left unaddressed, law enforcement officers will take their cues from her statement and the lack of accountability.
— ACLU of Michigan (@ACLUofMichigan) September 27, 2017
Neither did Detroit Free Press columnist Nancy Kaffer, who said that Etue revealed a lot about the kind of person she really was by hitting the “Share” button.
“When you decide who does and doesn’t deserve the right to speech, who can and can’t object to mistreatment, who is and isn’t entitled to claim this country, you decide who has value.”
I’d go further. If you don’t understand how calling someone who is merely exercising his or her rights in a peaceful manner a “degenerate” could be offensive, maybe it’s time to hand over your badge.
(featured image courtesy NBC News)
