The painfully dumb series of events has even led to the president issuing one of his stereotypically inane tweets where he openly begs someone to commit civil-rights violations. Congrats, Fins Nation!Statement from Owner Stephen Ross pic.twitter.com/cl1mS11HH0
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) July 20, 2018
The NFL National Anthem Debate is alive and well again - can’t believe it! Isn’t it in contract that players must stand at attention, hand on heart? The $40,000,000 Commissioner must now make a stand. First time kneeling, out for game. Second time kneeling, out for season/no pay!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2018
Original Post:
Accused collegiate rapist and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston was suspended for only three games this year for groping an Arizona Uber driver in March 2016.
But somehow, in the twisted, racist, netherworld logic of the NFL, the Miami Dolphins have decided to suspend players for as many as four games if they kneel during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and racism in the criminal justice system, according to a draft disciplinary rulebook the Associated Press obtained this afternoon.
The team announced its utterly insane new policy the same day the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union released a massive report outlining how Miami-Dade County's criminal-justice system systemically punishes blacks more harshly than whites for committing the same crimes. After analyzing criminal-justice data from 2010 through 2015, the ACLU found that black defendants have been treated more harshly at every step of the judicial process. The ACLU wrote that blacks in Miami are arrested at higher rates for the same crimes, given fewer pretrial release options, ordered to pay higher bail amounts, are convicted at higher rates, and are given longer sentences once convicted. This is all true even though data shows whites and blacks tend to break the law at roughly the same rates.
The ACLU today reported that black, non-Hispanic Miami-Dade residents are incarcerated at 2.5 times the rate of whites, while black, Hispanic residents are imprisoned at six times the rate of white Miamians.
But if Dolphins players want to protest the policing conditions in their home county, they will be suspended.
Miami Dolphins owner and impossibly wealthy real-estate magnate Stephen Ross told the New York Post earlier this year that he'd banned National Anthem protests for the upcoming NFL season. Then he claimed he was misquoted. The Post then published audio of the interview.BREAKING: Miami Dolphins to discipline players who protest during national anthem with suspensions, fines or both.
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 19, 2018
The NFL then officially banned anthem protests May 23 — the league's statement largely left player punishments up to individual teams. Players can technically stay in the locker room during the anthem. (The players' association has, naturally, contested the rule change.)
The Associated Press report is the first glimpse anyone has gotten as to how teams plan to discipline players for breaking a rule that justice-reform advocates call
As New Times has noted in the past, studies show that people who hate kneeling players also tend to dislike black people in general. How about that!