And lets also consider for a moment what its like to walk in the shoes of a police officer.

The words/labels were yours Carl, not mine. What I was referring to was the poster's "America, love it or leave it" attitude as opposed to "this is what I feel and why." It's way to easy to simply call someone a political label. As for the aforementioned state, from personal visits and experience, their public educational system is quite lacking and it took the murder of nine innocent church goers to get the governor that you mention to take down the flag from the state capitol grounds. It took her four years in office to do that. But back to the jist of this thread, Shabamon's post is a very good one.

I would encourage you to actually speak to some BLM protesters. I have attended the protests. I can tell you that BLM protesters definitely do have a problem with the (very tiny) fraction of people the chanted things like that. I can also tell you that BLM protesters have a huge problem with violence in black communities in all forms and speak out against it in all forms. One of my good friends regularly joins the BLM protests and also volunteers to tutor and mentor teenage boys in North Philly. I can also say that I don't know about Kaep but I do know that the Philadelphia Eagles players that have joined the protests have volunteered their time and money mentoring youth.

I will not hesitate to criticize police when they do wrong and I know many police officers that I consider to be friends that agree with me. They see first hand that there is a problem with how their colleagues treat minority communities and they speak out against it. Calling out a problem and criticizing people in power is not the same as criticizing the profession of policing or individual police officers that do good work. The idea that empathizing with the black community means you can't empathize with police officers is reductionist and down right silly.

I literally laughed out loud at the irony of him accusing you (while making a ton of assumptions about you) of ignoring facts and then using a misattributed quote to drive home the point. That's the big takeaway from this thread.

+1!!!!!

"I can also tell you that BLM protesters have a huge problem with violence in black communities in all forms and speak out against it in all forms."

I am certain the above is true. Yet, that is not getting through. There must be a media filter of the BLM movement to help or demonstrate concern over, what, 4,100 shot and >700 killed in Chicago. The only message I see presented is one of hate for police. Not helping. Like when someone disrespects the flag they are taking a shot at anyone who ever wore or is wearing it, when they really have a problem with only that "very tiny fraction." Again, not helping.

Unless they live in South Carolina! Then tar away with a broad brush all you want. In the previous post, Alan, you were clearly implying that PhiTau74 lives in a very backward state and one that was beneath your contempt.

Yes, they should have gotten rid of the CBF on the state house grounds years ago. From 1961 until 2000 they were actually flying it from the top of the capitol building, then they put it in that little "historical display" that has now been removed. That was right move, and I agree with you that it shouldn't have taken a mass murder to bring it about. There is still, unfortunately, a very small, and ever-shrinking neo-Confederate minority in some of the Deep South states. When the South Carolina legislature voted overwhelmingly to remove the flag in 2015, it showed clearly how little political power that fringe group really has anymore. They still bitch and moan a lot and get press coverage because they stage protests and are very bellicose, but they are a total embarrassment to most modern southerners who embrace the New South ideal.

LC, it's safe to say that 40% of posters on this site are not really fans of football to begin with. This is evident every time the discussion comes around about dropping football in importance to increase revenue to basketball

The comments are interesting, too. It seems there is a broad overlap between Trump supporters and those that have stopped or reduced their watching of the NFL over this issue. I would think that Trump supporters are/were a prime demographic for NFL supporters.

Logically the sequence of events you'd expect to see would be falling viewership/support leading to falling revenue, leading to falling player salaries. Since existing players may be under long term contract, the differential should be more visible for players signing new contracts. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

This whole thread should be a case study in liberal nonsense run amok. It started out logically deducing the NFL's sagging ratings and then it devolved into the liberal mantra of everyone who doesn't support their views are the usual words they use to describe people who don't believe in their failing ideology. Even quotes I took from Ronald Reagan were somehow not really his quotes they were some one else's of course. Logic has always been the foe of this failed ideology.

Think about it; every quote we use in modern English could somehow be explained away as some Old English saying or old German saying which of course came from Latin which sprung from ancient Greek. The same thing happens in music, Led Zeppelin was sued for "Stairway to Heaven" and Men at Work were sued claiming they also stole the lyrics from "Down Under." Both from bands Led Zeppelin and Men at Work probably never even heard of, but forget facts these other bands had grievances. It wasn't fair that they didn't hit the big time, so in classic liberal ideology they had to take from those who have.

Some here are offended by members of the military and police being honored at football games. Yet their hero Colin Kaepernick lauded his hero Fidel Castro, who when he wasn't busy killing, torturing and jailing tens of thousands of people, took military parades and hours long speeches to a new level. When Castro took over there were more doctors in Cuba per capita than the United States, many left they saw what was coming. Now the Cuban health care system is lauded by the Left as a model for the United States when in reality it is akin to 1959 standards like so many of those old US vehicles still on the road in Havana.

This is why so many in middle America get upset about Kaepernick and those in the NFL who laud his "free speech," However, when it comes back to haunt them, the problem isn't their failed ideology it is everyone else, and they go to amazing extremes to defend their failed ideas even calling into question "quotes" so as not to keep their eyes on the failed ideology which they espouse.

Also, the NYPD know full well how effective blocking traffic can be:

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/17/nyregion/officers-rally...

I hear tickets on train rides to Siberia are free.