Aside from all of the other emotional stuff running with this issue...

I think Kappernick's original protest of taking a knee during the National Anthem was a respectful protest. He did not impede, harass, or make a undue spectacle or comotion. He simply did not stand, and tradition aside, being on bended knee is not horribly disrespectful.

As to the Police... Oy Vay. I have a love hate relationship with the cops. You do run into bad apples, and they tend to spoil a good part of the barrel around them.

Have you never been written a traffic ticket for something you didn't do? Not just I thought I was doing 35 but got written for 39 mph, but for something that didn't even happen. I Have.

Have you ever served on a jury and listened to officers lie on the stand? I have. Not just my opinion, but that of all 12 of us that the cops were lying in order to convict the guy they arrested. Good upstanding folks these cops...

Have you ever been arrested in a sting operation for something that you didn't do? I have. They just picked out a number of us and took us all in. The arrest reports were all but carbon copies of each other, likely written in advance, just fill in the name. No relationship to what actually happend. I honestly thought they'd sent me a copy of the wrong police report, it had so little to do with what actually happened! There's two officers on my list of folks who should loose their jobs and pensions, not matter how many good things they might have done while on the job.

Have you ever been in a car accident and had the cops write a report that was not close to factual? Even after pointing out to them at the scene several reasons why their report is factually incorrect, ask the other people who involved. Yeah, they just can't be bothered, and seeing as cops never lie or are mistaken, their slopiness becomes "fact".

I've served on juries where there'd be one or more people with the illusion that cops don't lie and can't be wrong, and deserve our total respect, reguardless. Have you ever hung a jury? I have. [P.S. I have convicted defendants doing jury duty.]

Now on the other side of the coin, I've talked a lot of cops out of writing me tickets. Not been arrested when holding the Noble Herb.
And cops have rescued me after Armed Robberies. Untied me after I was forced to open the safe and then Gagged and Hog-tied and left on the office floor.

My point is that there ARE two sides to this coin. Please don't dismiss the fact that cops are not as goody-two shoes as they should be. There are some who single out folks and "pick" on them for no good reason. That needs to stop, or at least become a rarity, not a commonality. How should we / are we going to, change this without protest?

And Respectful protests are part of what was fought for by many generations of our finest citizens.

Steve Gobel