Antonio Cromartie took a knee and raised his fist in protest during the national anthem in London on Sunday — with Terence Crutcher on his mind.
The veteran cornerback became the first Colt player to protest the anthem this season.
Cromartie’s protest was centered Terence Crutcher, the unarmed 40-year-old black man who was killed in Tulsa by officer Betty Jo Shelby.
Cromartie had conversations with family members and teammates — centered around why Shelby’s bail was so low per the Indy Star.
“The police officer in Tulsa had a bond of $50,000,” Cromartie said. “Then you have the guy that was protesting in (Chicago) that had a $350,000 bond. How is that coherent with each other? That’s not right. So you’re going to give, I feel, a black young man a $350,000 bond and you’re going to give a police officer a $50,000 bond that killed somebody that had no weapon and then you lie about it in your report and tell you everybody he wasn’t cooperating, and when you watch the video it’s something different.”’
Cromartie also insisted that his protest was about social injustice, not the police.
“All cops are not bad,” he said. “You have some great cops. I have some cops in my family. I have people that have been in the military that are in my family. My grandfather was a Marine. We’re fighting for those people.”
Cromartie says he prayed on the matter, and was bothered by the 708 people who have been killed by police this year – 173 who are black.
