King’s heil-storm
L.I. pol: Would Jets owner pay fines if players gave Nazi salute?
LONG ISLAND Rep. Pete King kicked off a storm of outrage Saturday when he likened NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to Nazis.
The repugnant remark came in response to acting Jets owner Christopher Johnson’s announcement that the team would not penalize players who took a pregame knee to protest police brutality against black people.
“Disgraceful that @nyjets owner will pay fines for players who kneel for national anthem,” King tweeted.
“Encouraging a movement premised on lies vs. police. Would he support all player protests? Would he pay fines of players giving Nazi salutes or spew racism? It’s time to say goodbye to Jets!”
The comment triggered an immediate backlash on social media and beyond.
“To take people that are nonviolently protesting what they and many of us feel is police misconduct and racism, and compare them to people who put millions of people in ovens . . . shows an outright insensitivity that is inexcusable,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton.
The outcry against King also came from some unlikely sources.
The Dictionary.com Twitter account took umbrage with the Republican congressman’s Nazi comparison.
“Comparing apples and oranges is an idiom. It refers to comparing two unlike objects,” the site tweeted.
“E.g. NY Rep. Pete King compared #TakeAKnee to a Nazi salute.”
Reached Saturday afternoon, King doubled down on his tweet.
But he insisted that he wasn’t comparing the players to Nazis.
Instead, he was making the point that private companies are free to impose free speech restrictions on its employees.
“For those who say it’s a freedom of speech issue, where is that line drawn?” King told the Daily News.
“Would (Johnson) say the same thing if the players were giving the Nazi salute, waving the Confederate flag, espousing the NRA?”
King added that he believes the fundamental premise of the protest is flawed.
“The statistics show that African-Americans are no more likely to be shot by police than whites,” King said.
“And just because police shoot them doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”
On average, police kill more whites than blacks in the U.S.
But after adjusting for the size of the populations, black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by cops, according to a 2016 Washington Post analysis.
The NFL announced Wednesday that it will fine teams whose players take a pregame knee during the national anthem.
Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the first to perform the act of on-field protest in response to a spate of police killings of unarmed black men in 2016.
The Jets owner said earlier in the week his players are free to express themselves as they see fit. “If somebody takes a knee, that fine will be borne by the organization, by me, not the players,” Johnson said.
“I never want to put restrictions on the speech of our players. Do I prefer that they stand? Of course. But I understand if they felt the need to protest.”