San Francisco's police union sounds off on Colin Kaepernick

Martin Halloran, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, said that 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick “embarrassed” himself by publicly criticizing police in the United States. Halloran fired off a letter to 49ers president Jed York and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stating that Kaepernick’s charges that police are killing people of color unjustly and being given paid vacations were naive and showed a “total lack of sensitivity towards police officers.” Halloran also requested that both organizations apologize to “the many police officers Mr. Kaepernick has disrespected for no apparent reason.”

“Perhaps Mr. Kaepernick could comment on the murder of 40 police officers in the United States in the past few months, or the assaults perpetrated on over 100,000 law enforcement officers in the past year. Perhaps he could lend his commentary to the over 8,000 murders that African Americans inflicted on one another in 2015.”

Kaepernick remained seated during the playing of the national anthem at a 49ers preseason game Aug. 26. He explained:

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media’s Steve Wyche. “To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Kaepernick has said he will continue to sit during the playing of the national anthem at subsequent games until “ … there’s significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent in this country—is representing the way that it’s supposed to.”

Halloran extended an invitation to Kaepernick—and any other employees of the NFL or the 49ers organization—to come to the SFPD’s officer training academy to partake in their training simulations.