Brandon Marshall of the Denver Broncos is doing more than kneeling with Colin Kaepernick during the playing of the national anthem. He’s taking his peaceful, rightful protest from the field to City Hall to engage in dialogue with law enforcement officials.
According to the Denver Post, Marshall met with Denver Police Chief Robert White on Tuesday to discuss general public safety, police brutality and training methods. In addition to his own list of questions, Marshall offered social media followers the opportunity to submit their own questions for the Chief that he would ask on their behalf. The meeting, which reportedly lasted about an hour, was a candid discussion with the Chief answering as many questions as he could and in turn presenting Marshall with his own list of questions and ways citizens can work hand in hand with law enforcement to fight racial injustice.
“There are a lot of people that will raise issues and be negative and be what my kids call just ‘haters,’ no matter what you do and let it go at that,” White said Tuesday, shortly after his meeting with Marshall. “(Marshall) has issues and he has questions as it relates to what we’re doing. He acknowledged some of those challenges, and he wants to do something about it. And part of doing something about it is going to the source of where you think some of those issues are.”
Following the meeting, White was asked directly if he was supporting Kaepernick, Marshall, and others peacefully protesting during the playing of the National Anthem to which he responded,
“Do I support him kneeling? I support his right along with the other thousands of individuals who have demonstrated in our city, during the course of my four years here, to express their First Amendment rights,” White said. “Whether I agree or disagree I think is totally irrelevant. I think as a chief and as a law enforcement person, I have a responsibility to protect the rights of everyone as it relates to the constitution and the (First) Amendment. I respect his right to exercise his First Amendment.”
Kudos to both Marshall for requesting the meeting, while exercising his First Amendment right, and to Chief Roberts for having a frank and open conversation. Now if only the media would stop calling the discussion “racial issues” and call the problem what it really is, “policy brutality.”