As the football season has played out in recent months, disgraced former quarterback Colin Kaepernick hasn’t been making headlines with as much frequency as he did at the start of the season. With so much attention focused on Trump and the sexual harassment scandals, the whole Knee-gate controversy has been relegated to the back-burner.
Even so, Kaepernick is adjusting to life outside the NFL and as a “movement leader,” appearing at various events to spread his ignorance. While that’s par for the course, his latest stunt has rightfully elicited outraged from the folks that actually have to deal with the fallout from his appearances.
As reported at the New York Post, in a move backed by the city, Kaepernick made a surprise visit to the infamous Rikers Island on Tuesday to meet with inmates. Predictably, the move enraged correctional officers, as his presence served only to endanger them will on the job.
The former San Francisco 49ers star spoke to groups of inmates during two sessions Tuesday morning at the jail’s George Motchan Detention Center. He expounded upon on social justice issues and talked about his decision to kneel during the national anthem, which resulted in a national controversy.
“That’s crazy to me to have a person like Colin Kaepernick in prison talking about police brutality,” said an officer who attended the event. “It was insulting for me to be there.”
“In the inmates’ eyes, we are the police when they’re locked up.”
Kaepernick started off his visit by attending breakfast in the warden’s office, before conducting two 45-minute sessions with prisoners at the “Peace Center.” A volunteer at the jail introduced Kaepernick, who gave a 10-minute talk before fielding questions and signing autographs.
“They were basic questions, like what’s it like to play in the NFL,” said the source.
“Then they asked him about taking a knee, why was he doing it. He said he was doing it to call attention to police brutality.”
“He said he felt that being a man of means, he felt obligated to take a stance on what he believes in.”
In the second session, which consisted of four adults and 10 adolescents, Kaepernick was more transparent about his feelings concerning the supposed epidemic of police brutality against blacks, the source said.
“He came out of the gate with the police brutality … and he said the NFL was keeping him out of the game for speaking out.”
“He was telling them how they could do better in life, that they’ve made mistakes, that this wasn’t the end for them, that they could go on to do good things,” he said. The source added that the atmosphere was calm and that the former quarterback never disparaged or bad mouthed police or correctional officers.
Regardless of the content of his sessions, the move drew outrage from corrections union officials, who said the cop-hating athlete’s visit will only serve to endanger their members by emboldening criminals who see themselves as victims of a corrupt criminal justice system.
“The inmates see a guy like this coming in, it’s almost like the administration is condoning being anti-law enforcement,” said Patrick Ferraiuolo, president of the Correction Captains’ Association. “His presence alone could incite these guys.”
For some reason, Kaepernick also preached to uninformed and non-uniformed Rikers employees.
“This will only encourage inmates to continue to attack correction officers at a time when we need more protection,” said Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association.
Husamudeen said that the stunt was another one of the mayor’s ill-conceived schemes.
“Once again, correction officers find themselves caught in Mayor de Blasio’s political con game,” Husamudeen said.
“This is yet another brazen display of the hypocrisy of this mayor, who pretends to support us in public, yet does everything possible to jeopardize our security in private.”
It’s absurd to send Kaepernick to such a place, as if he’s got anything intelligent to say about anything. This is a guy that whines about police and wears Che Guevara t-shirts at the same time. He’s clueless, as is the mayor responsible for this publicity stunt.
Source: New York Post