One Cop’s Take On Colin Kaepernick

by Gary Delagnes (Ret.), San Francisco PD

Colin Kaepernick was raised in Turlock, California, by two white parents who adopted him at a young age. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to a white, 19-year old single mother. His father, who was African American, apparently left before Colin was born.
Colin was put up for adoption and the Kaepernicks brought him into their home and raised him as their son. By all accounts, he grew up in a loving and nurturing family,
and ultimately became a three-sport phenom at John Pitman High School, in Turlock.

The current African American population in Turlock is 566. Turlock is known as a sleepy bedroom community off Highway 99 in the Central Valley of California. It is generally regarded as a friendly community, with few racial issues. It appears that he was a celebrated athlete, apparently idolized in his community. Kaepernick has never pointed to any negative or unfriendly encounter with local law enforcement during his early years.

Despite being drafted as a talented baseball pitcher, he chose the University of Nevada, Reno, to pursue a football career. He spent four years at Reno—hardly a bastion of racial injustice—and again realized fame and appreciation as a star quarterback for the Wolfpack. Again, it appears that he was treated well in Reno, and he became a local legend due to his football exploits.

He has never mentioned any disparate treatment by law enforcement during his years in Reno.

After graduating from Reno, Colin was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round. Within three years, the young phenom led the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

Playing and living in the most tolerant, racially diverse area in the United States, Kaepernick was embraced and loved by Bay Area sports fans. I was one of those fans. I admired him and rooted for him to do well as a football player, as well as a successful young adult.

I was also a veteran San Francisco police officer, and an elected president of the major employee group in the department, the San Francisco Police Officers Association. I took great pride in my city and my profession and in the outstanding group of dedicated individuals who were the membership of the SFPOA.

During the early stages of Colin’s professional football career he seemed to be a quarterback whose primary goal was to get better and become a starter in the NFL. He accomplished that in 2013, replacing starter Alex Smith in the middle of the season.

His first foray into the racial inequities of America apparently coincided with his budding romance with “black activist” Nessa Diab. I have been told by several reliable sources within the 49er organization that Colin, apparently a man of great integrity, courted Nessa, while her boyfriend, Aldon Smith was undergoing treatment at a drug rehabilitation facility. To give you an idea of Nessa’s political background (she was raised in Saudi Arabia), she made this comment: “When 9-1-1 happened, I wasn’t surprised at all. This is probably what I went through every couple of weeks where I grew up.”

Under the apparent guidance and counseling of Diab, (and I’m sure Dr. Harry Edwards was chipping in), Colin decided to make his stand against injustice by donning “Pig Socks” to a 49ers practice on or about August 10, 2016, and continued to do so for at least three days. A bold and clever statement—if you’re 10 years old!

About this time, he apparently decided he would sit for the national anthem to protest police brutality and racism in America.

Yet Kaepernick, the new would-be NFL siren of justice, has never addressed the fact that over 800 of his NFL peers have been arrested since 2000. Well over 100 of those arrests have been for acts of domestic violence against women. I can’t remember any NFL player taking a knee to demonstrate against the very act that so many of their own players are guilty of. Kaepernick himself was implicated in a sexual assault case in April 2014 by a woman who alleged she was undressed by Kaepernick while under the influence in Miami at the residence of Seattle receiver Ricardo Lockett. He was not prosecuted, but was investigated, and it appears that a naked woman was in the apartment with three NFL football players. Poor judgement, at the very least!

The audacity. These players protest police brutality and social injustice when they can’t even keep their own house in order. They point a finger at law enforcement, but will take no responsibility for the egregious behavior of their own peers.

Where were you on that one, Colin?

I haven’t heard him speak a word about the epidemic of black-on-black crime or the cold blooded assassinations of police officers over the past year in New York and Dallas.

As his apparent hatred for law enforcement increased, so did his moronic comments, which, of course, were never challenged by the media, which was too busy attempting to turn him into some sort of spokesman for the racially oppressed.

A week or so after the “pig socks” fiasco, and sitting during the national anthem, he made the ingenious statement: “We have cops on paid leave for killing black men.”
I wish Kaepernick could sit in a room with police officers who have had to take the life of another human being, as I have over 20 times, and see the psychological and emotional effect it has. Many of these officers never return to work because of the devastation involved in taking the life of another human being.

We then had the “Fidel Castro” fiasco when Kaepernick, apparently not knowing Castro ran a dictatorship and had killed more than 1,000,000 of his own people, decided to wear a T-shirt with his picture on it, in, of all places, Miami, which, of course, is filled with refugees from Cuba who fled due to Castro’s oppression. He was called out by sportswriter and Cuban immigrant Armando Salguero, who actually pointed out who Castro really was during a press conference. Of course, Kaepernick, with little or no knowledge of who Castro was, made a fool of himself once again by pointing out Castro was “good on education.” Brilliant, Colin!

Right around that time we found out Kaepernick has never voted. Any credibility he still had should have been lost at that point, but the San Francisco media, most prominently Kevin Lynch and Eric Branch from the Chronicle, kept running this clown out as if he were the next Martin Luther King.

He then wore a Black Panthers T-shirt to a subsequent media event, thereby giving tacit support to an organization that not only promoted violence, but actively took part in the killing of many Americans, including police officers in the late 60s and early 70s.

When he did these things, you have to wonder if he is naive or just ignorant, but of course, the San Francisco media would never challenge him on any of these idiotic gestures.

As he continued to tweet misleading and erroneous information, it was taken as gospel by a gullible and naive media that was more interested in promoting Kaepernick’s agenda rather than actually pursuing the truth.

Some specific examples.

In September 2016, Kaepernick commented that the killings of Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott were perfect examples of African Americans being murdered by police for little or no reason.

The real facts are these: Crutcher had previously served five years in prison for selling crack cocaine. Officers responded to a call of an abandoned vehicle and found Crutcher, obviously under the influence of something, yelling that “his car was going to blow up!” Crutcher kept reaching into his pockets and walking back toward his car, despite being told numerous times to stop. He would not stop, and when he reached into the driver side of his vehicle, he was shot and killed. Toxicology reports found that Crutcher was, in fact, under the influence of PCP. He was shot by a Tulsa police officer by the name of Betty Shelby, a 41-year-old former teacher and devout Christian. She was indicted, purely for political reasons, and found not guilty within a matter of hours by a jury that included African Americans. Just a few minor details that Kaepernick omitted from his narrative.

The second so called “police murder” Kaepernick referenced was Keith Lamont Scott. He was shot and killed by officer Brentley Vinson on September 20, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Of course, Kaepernick fails to mention that officer Vinson is also African American. Another slight detail Kaepernick fails to mention is the fact that Scott exited his vehicle with a handgun and was shot when he refused to drop it.

In November 2016, Charlotte prosecutors declined to file charges against officer Vinson and deemed the shooting justified. Again, Kaepernick either ignored the facts of the case or was too lazy to conduct meaningful research. Again, no media follow-up, no tough questions, no guts to pursue the truth or question his information. Just lousy local news reporting.

At some point, he decided he needed to be a spokesman for “police brutality” and racial inequality in America.

This is the would-be social injustice mouthpiece and media counter-culture darling. This is a self-established leader of the African-American community. This is the person that many NFL players and coaches have rallied around.

Gary Delagnes was a police officer with the San Francisco PD for three decades and served as president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.