Last Sunday, five black St. Louis Rams players raised their hands to show solidarity with Ferguson protesters. The gesture infuriated the city’s white police union, whose business manager, Jeff Roorda — a white cop with a checkered personal history — called it “tasteless, offensive and inflammatory,” demanded the NFL punish the players, and insisted the team issue a “very public apology.”
Today, a group representing over 200 St. Louis black cops told Roorda to go fly a kite. “We think that their actions were commendable and that they should not be ridiculed, disciplined or punished for taking a stand on this very important issue which is of great concern around the world and especially in the community where these players work,” the Ethical Society of Police of St. Louis said, which describes itself as “the primary voice of African-American police officers in St. Louis city.”
By a strange coincidence, the ESPSL’s president is Darren R. Wilson. No, not that Darren Wils
on, this Darren Wilson:
Photo of Darren R. Wilson, president of Ethical Society of Police, leader of St. Louis County’s African-American police association.