Bennett (l) and his buddy Kaepernick.
I’ve told you about this NFL player before. He’s writing a book entitled,
Things That Make White People Uncomfortable (due out next year) and
he won’t stand for the national anthem until he “feels like everything is equal.”
This past Wednesday he went public with an incident he had with the Las Vegas Police Department in August. We know there are two sides to every story yet
it’s quite interesting that Mr. Bennett omitted a couple important details from his story. Read on…
From
MyNorthwest.com: Michael Bennett addressed reporters Wednesday afternoon, hours after he posted an open letter to Twitter
detailing a disturbing encounter with Las Vegas police during which he was forcefully held to the ground and handcuffed by an officer.
(From Bennett’s Twitter post: ““A police officer ordered me to get on the ground,” Bennett wrote. “As I laid on the ground, complying with his commands to not move, he placed his gun near my head and warned me that if I moved he would ‘blow my (expletive) head off’.”)
“A lot of people of color have dealt with this before,” Bennett said. “And I hate that it happened to me, but I’m lucky to be in the situation to have the platform to continuously speak on injustice.”
Bennett said he told his family, teammates and head coach Pete Carroll about the incident after it happened in late August.
After seeking advice about how to handle it, Bennett ultimately decided to make a public statement.
“There’s a lot of people who experience what I experienced in that moment,” Bennett said. “And they’re not here to tell their story.
“It’s an emotional moment for me. I know a lot of people are like, ‘
Oh, did he want this on himself?’ I didn’t ask for this moment. It just happened to be me… any moment, I could have made the wrong decision. Whether move or (make the officer feel) like I was resisting or doing something wrong, and (the Seahawks) would be wearing… the patch with the No. 72 on it.”
A clearly emotional Bennett stood at the podium at Seahawks headquarters in Renton and fielded questions for nearly seven minutes before pausing during a question about his family.
The question was about a statement he made last year about being a black man in America – how even great accomplishments or fame cannot protect or make people of color immune from racism, racial profiling or police brutality.
“I try to tell my daughters every single day that they matter, and that…” Bennett said, before quietly walking out of the auditorium.
Cornerback Richard Sherman, who spoke to reporters shortly after Bennett’s exit,
said Bennett’s own encounter is evidence in itself for the causes Bennett publicly supports — including his controversial decision to sit during the national anthem.
“Mike is literally sitting, taking a stand, doing everything he can to combat the same thing that he experienced,” Sherman said.
“And people are so worried about him sitting down during the national anthem that they completely miss that message a lot of the time. They want to be more angry at the action than the message. And that’s an unfortunate part of the world we live in nowadays. I wish that people would take it for what it is and make a difference.”
And what exactly did the Las Vegas Police Department have to stay about the incident that occurred in late August? From USA Today:
Las Vegas police said that there is no evidence to Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett’s accusation that he was racially profiled by the department during an incident outside a casino.
Las Vegas Police Department undersheriff Kevin McMahill held a news conference Wednesday to respond to Bennett’s allegations, which he revealed earlier in the day.
“Many of the folks today have called this a incident of bias-based policing, police officers focusing solely on the race of an individual that they’re going to stop,” McMahill said. “I can tell you as I stand here today, I see no evidence of that. I see no evidence that race played any role in this incident.”
The officer who apprehended Bennett didn’t have his body camera on and it was not immediately clear why, McMahil lsaid. He added there are 126 videos from the officers that will be reviewed, and if those reveal that “any policies or training was violated, those officers will be held accountable.”
In a social media post, Bennett claimed he was singled out for “simply being a black man.” He added that “the officers’ excessive use of force was unbearable.”
Officers responded to reports of a possible active shooter in the casino around 1:30 on Aug. 27 after the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight.
While searching for an active shooter, an officer noticed Bennett crouched near a gaming machine. Two officers gave chase when the individual (later identified as Bennett) ran out of the casino and onto the strip. Both officers were armed with handguns, and the arresting officer did not turn on his body camera.
“You hear the officer approaching the door saying, ‘There he is.’ He gives chase, Mr. Bennett jumped over the wall, our officer jumped went over the wall immediately there after,” McMahill said. He said Bennett was detained for 10 minutes and released.
Bennett said he was not given “any justification” for his apprehension.
So Mr. Bennett is “crouching” during an active shooter situation? Understandable if he knew what was occurring. But if he didn’t know it might be an active shooter situation, then why is he crouching behind a gaming machine?
Even if Bennett didn’t know of the active shooter situation, why would he choose to run from a police officer? Guess it’s just one of those things that might make us white people uncomfortable.
DCG
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