Kap has company
Teammate Also Kneels during Anthem
Colin Kaepernick wore socks to a recent practice that show cartoon policemen done up as “pigs.”
Photos from Aug. 10 show the NFL lightning rod wearing the black socks adorned with anti-police caricatures. Kaepernick wore the socks again two days later. One photo from the Aug. 10 practice session in San Francisco, which was open to the public, captures him walking onto the field with a raised fist.
The sartorial statement came prior to Kaepernick’s sit-down protest of the national anthem — designed, he said, to call attention to the oppression of black people and people of color in the United States — gaining attention during the 49ers’ preseason game on Aug. 26.
“I wore these socks, in the past, because the rogue cops that are allowed to hold positions in police departments, not only put the community in danger, but also put the cops that have the right intentions in danger by creating an environment of tension and mistrust,” Kaepernick wrote Thursday on Instagram. “I have two uncles and friends who are police officers and work to protect and serve ALL people.”
In elaborating on his controversial anthem boycott in an indepth media session on Sunday, Kaepernick highlighted police brutality as one of the ways in which America had failed to live up to its lofty ideals.
“There is police brutality. People of color have been targeted by police,” Kaepernick said. “So that’s a large part of it and they’re government officials. They are put in place by the government. So that’s something that this country has to change.
“There’s things we can do to hold them more accountable. Make those standards higher. You you can become a cop in six months and don’t have to have the same amount of training as a cosmetologist. That’s insane.”