Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "Why Colin Kaepernick Won’t Stand For National Anthem" video.

Apparently, and the fact that he chose Tamir Rice was pretty ridiculous. Tamir would never have been shot if he wasn't carrying around what appeared to be a gun or had the sense to not lower it in the direction of the police. Toy guns are legally required to have that orange tip so as to reduce the likelihood of people mistaking them for real firearms. The video is out there and it pretty clearly shows that he was shot while lowering the toy gun in the direction of the cops. Perhaps they could choose somebody else that wasn't so clearly justifiably shot by police to use for these examples. Alton Sterling appears to have done nothing to have caused the cops to shoot him. Or at least that's what the videos appear to indicate.
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He has a shaved head, I don't see any white-supremacist gear in the video nor do I see any sort of indication that he's a bigot. In fact, it's rather unlikely that a skinhead would even have the jersey of somebody that wasn't completely white.
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Perhaps if you folks would have better judgment about whom you glorify you'd be taken more seriously. Most of the videos out there are about black people being shot that are inflaming tensions, threatening the cops and running away. There's little talk about what the community is doing to contribute to the problem and there's this incredible degree of hypocrisy involved with convicting the officers in the court of public opinion and then whining about the system being prejudiced. If there's a real problem here at all, it would probably be best to learn from Gandhi and stop fighting with the police and stop inflaming tensions to emphasize the difference between you and the police. It worked brilliantly in India, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't work here in the US where you have more rights.
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He'd presumably already bought the jersey. And it wouldn't be a meaningful gesture if he didn't burn it. I wouldn't personally be caught dead with a Kaepernick jersey, he always seemed like a dick to me, but if you're going to protest, then protest.
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4daluvofnikki I watched the video and the bottom line is that he had multiple chances to do the right thing and he chose to make one poor decision after another after another. He was shot shortly after they arrived because he was carrying an illegally painted toy gun and motioned it in their direction. He wouldn't have been shot if he hadn't made a string of incredibly poor decisions. This kind of attitude that the black community has no obligation here is why this remains a problem. You don't see other communities whining about their folks being killed when engaged in such foolishness. Perhaps less racism on your part and more effort to consider the context would lead to some enlightenment. I wouldn't go around brandishing a firearm looking toy and continue to hold onto it when hearing police sirens because I don't want to be shot. For all practical purposes he was armed at the time he was shot. It's not right to expect the police to know that he's unarmed when carrying what appears to be a firearm and motioning it in their direction.
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Needmore Zen Perhaps you ought to check your privilege. As somebody who's actually had a firearm pointed at him, I can tell you that you don't have much time at all to make a decision about how to deal with it. In this case, Tamir only gave the police a fraction of a second to make a decision and they made the only decision he left them. Now, had he thrown the toy down as they rolled up, or even just kept still while they gave him instructions or hadn't been foolishly going around with an improperly painted toy gun in plain sight, he'd likely be alive today. That's not the police's fault. The police officers made the best call they could with the available information. It could just as easily have been a private citizen with a concealed firearm permit or somebody carrying a weapon illegally. Put blame where it's due. On the person that was behaving in a reckless and irresponsible manner. It's unfortunate that it came to that, but he didn't exactly give them any choice.
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More cop hating from TYT, I'm definitely not going to be giving them money while they're hating on cops. Tamir Rice was shot because he did a number of extremely stupid things that put the police in a position where they had to shoot him. I've seen the video and it's pretty clear that Tamir was lowering the toy gun in a way that appeared to target the cops.
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