TOWSON, Maryland, Sunday, September 24, 2017 - This is what the First Amendment means, at least to me: The First Amendment is in the United States Bill of Rights. This "subsequent" part of the Constitution enumerates the basic rights possessed by every American. The First Amendment provides every American with the absolute right to say what is in his heart and on his mind. At any time he chooses, he can attack the government. He can attack the institutions of government and the institutions of our national culture. And he can do so without the fear that an arm of the government will move to silence him or to abrogate this right in any way. Because of the First Amendment, I can stand in front of the Supreme Court and scream to the top of my voice that every one of the justices are ingrates. And no matter how much I get on people's nerves, the government cannot try to stop me. For the government to move against me for what I am saying would be a violation of the First Amendment.
Understand, however, that every American has this same identical right. If I do what I suggested I could do, by right, in the paragraph above, any other American can stand in front of me and scream, as loud as they can, that I am as wrong as one can be and should shut up. Or he or she can scream out loud that I am a total jerk, or worse. The government cannot and will not place this person under arrest.
If I am at work, if I am on the clock for an employer and am saying things or distributing leaflets that hurt or embarasses my employer, I can be disciplined or fired. The employer has no right to prevent me from saying what I want to say. But he does not have to tolerate my behavior on this dime. I have the right to say that my boss is a jerk. My boss has the right to fire me for saying what I said, or other things that are contrary to the business that the boss operates. The law is that a person can be fired for any reason, or no reason, as long as the reason for my firing is not against the law or a policy that is endorsed by the Constitution.
How does all of this apply to the NFL and the current controversy involving players who carry on during the National Anthem? The players who want to protest by kneeling during the National Anthem have the legal right to do so. The police cannot come and place those players under arrest; they've broken no law. In fact, it would be illegal to try and pass a law that makes protesting illegal.
But, a team owner - the owner of the business that is that football team - may, if he chooses, fire the players who are protesting. The owner may have served in the military and feels that the players are disrespecting the nation by the things they are doing. What's more, he may feel that the controversy surrounding the protests is distracting the players, and as a result, they are playing far below their capabilities. Before members of the Baltimore Ravens joined the protest Sunday in London, they were undefeated and almost unscored upon. After participating in the protest, they lost to a lesser team by the humiliating score of 44-7.
A lot of people don't much care what the owners do. Well, that isn't exactly true. President Trump cares. He says the owners should "fire" the players who participate in the protests. He has the right to sat that. But I wish he'd shut up about it. I think he is playing into the Ultra Left's hands with what he is doing. It seemed that public opinion was coalescing against the players doing what they were doing.
And while we're on the subject of what big wheels have to say, I also think Lebron James is all wrong. He is critical of Trump - well, lets be honest - like most folk aligned with the ultra left elite, Lebron hates the idea of a working chap being president, and, hence, he hates Trump. Lebron says Trump is using sport to cause disunity.
When I heard him say that, I almost laughed. He supported Obama and Hillary. That is why I'd like to ask him what Obama was up to when he called the police "stupid" for arresting a Harvard Professor who slipped off the deep end one night. That professor was acting really stupid, and when his stupidity broke the law, he was arrested. Was Obama stupid for saying what he said?
Many people who fought in wars, or had parents or grandparents who fought, are really really angry about protests taking place during our national anthem. It isn't just a few people who are upset. It is a whole lot of people.
The players are biting the hand that feeds them. I don't think they've come to grips with that just yet. Maybe they think they are so wonderful that they can do or say pretty much whatever they want, without getting in trouble for it. And it is true, they can do whatever they want. But they cannot force people to pay to see it.
During a call in at a Baltimore radio station on Monday morning, no small number of Raven ticket holders got on the phone to say they won't be using their very expensive NFL tickets any time soon. They said they won't mail them back to the Ravens because they don't want the press or the team saying that the stadium was full when, in fact, it isn't.
The Courts, I believe, are not going to prevent the players from protesting. That would be a violation of the First Amendment.
Mike Tomlin, the outstanding coach of the Steelers, kept his team in the locker room during the national anthem. He reasoned that it was a way to keep the entire team out of the controversy. But one of the Steelers, Alejandro Villanueva, is a veteran who was a member of the United States Army Rangers. He came out of the locker room, and stood just a bit out on the field, for the Anthem. As word of what Villanueva had done spread around the country, sales of his Steeler Jersey skyrocketed, and by days end had become one of the top five jerseys being purchased from NFL vendors.
But then, adding to the wacky nature of the controversy, Villanueva called a press conference to apologize to Tomlin and his teammates for breaking solidarity with them. He said he never intended to act differently from the rest of the team. He said he was right with them, but they were a bit further back the tunnel than he was, and he was in the TV picture with his hand over his heart, and the rest of the team was not.
I think, in summary, we can say that the players have the legal and constitutional right to protest during the National Anthem.
But saying that the players have the legal right to protest doesn't end the controversy. Were that it was that easy.
People who are offended by players who protest during the anthem can stage counter-protests, including not going to the games, turning their backs toward the players, booing, etc. And the owners, if they choose, can fire the players. So far, most owners are supporting the players. We'll see what happens when attendance plunges and TV viewership plunges.
The truth is this: Millions of football fans - most of whom are Americans - are very upset by the actions of the players. The money that is spent by the fans - for tickets, for jerseys and pennants etc. - make possible the lavish lifestyle that the players enjoy. Most of the people who spend their money to buy tickets and jerseys don't live nearly as well as the players.
With this being the case, you would think that the players would care a bit about what the fans are upset about.
Does the fact that fans strongly disagree with players protesting during the national anthem mean that the fans don't care about rogue police beating up innocent citizens? I don't think it means that at all. I don't know one soul who feels it is okay for police to beat up or harass innocent people. Where the difference is lay in how serious the problem is. Somebody has told the players that the problem is intractable. Many fans don't live in the high crime districts, where police, almost necessarily take the most liberties with constitutional rights. On the other hand, most players have little concept of what it is like to try to police in areas where they are viewed as enemies of the people. In Baltimore, riots broke out after Freddie Gray - a heroin dealer - died in police custody. The State's Attorney and the Mayor - partly to diffuse the civil unrest - made statements to the effect that the police would be punished for "killing" Gray. It turned out that the officers involved - half of whom were black - did nothing wrong. They were totally exonerated by a judge, who was a very good judge, better than the knuckleheaded writer of this column gave him credit for. But after the riots in Baltimore, the Baltimore Police became far less aggressive in fighting crimes. The arrest rate is way down in Baltimore, and crime has skyrocketed, especially the crime of murder. The people who suffer far more than anyone else when crime grows to the rate it is in Baltimore are the countless innocent people who live in the high crime areas, and the other people who attempt to run businesses in these areas.
It is an awful situation. But unless you live through it, you might not know that. We had a really great Mayor in Baltimore. His name was William Donald Schaefer. He turned around a city that was going to hell, and made it great again. People started coming down town. Businesses started to open. People started to move back downtown. Schaefer was a confirmed bachelor who devoted every minute of the day to improving the City. He almost singlehandedly convinced voters to authorize a huge project at the inner harbor of the City. He worked very hard to get the NFL to replace the Colts. He rejuvenated neighborhoods. He found ingenious ways to finance rejuvenation.
The Mayors that came after Schaefer - with the exception of Clarence 'Du' Burns - haven't been as talented and dedicated as he was, even though some of them tried.
Our City stands in the balance right now. The runaway murder rate is draining the lifeblood out of it. People are again afraid. The City reached an agreement with the Obama Justice Department that compels the police to run around Robinhood's Barn before they can arrest anyone. It is brainless to do this to a City that is dieing. But the City signed the agreement. Trump - who LeBron James hates - tried to hold up the agreement, but a judge said no. This was a bad judge.
Is there a "problem" with police brutality against minority citizens? Anytime an officer beats up an innocent person it is a problem, a very big problem Such an act is contrary to all of the ideals that the police stand for. But crime statistics indicate firmly that police brutality is not a big problem, and certainly not in the same degree of seriousness as crime and urban decay, both of which are fueled by the drug craze. Police Departments around the country, especially in the large urban areas, react strongly when brutality is proven to have occurred. No matter how hard police departments try, there will always be rogue officers. But there aren't a whole lot of these and it is not a "growing" problem. Polls indicate that most people strongly support the police. The Ultra Left try to say that the people who support police are "white supremacists" and "racists." Are most Americans "white supremacists" and "racists?"
They are not.
This controversy with protesting football players is completely off base and out of touch with what is going on in our cities. Police Behavior is not a major part of the crime problem. Do drug dealers operate because they are opposed to police brutality. Do people murder each other because of police brutality. Of course not. Police are human beings. They are compelled, as part of their jobs, to come into daily intimate contact with the worst members of society. They cannot be nice or even "decent" to such people. But we ask them to try. We ask them not to brutalize these societal dregs, and 98% of them comply with this request. When an officer goes over the line, society and his agency put the hammer down. Once in a while, a bad officer gets away with being mean. More than once in a while, a criminal is not caught, or caught and not prosecuted, or prosecuted and found not guilty when he was guilty, or found guilty and given a criminally light prison sentence. Police brutality is very rare, even in the worst urban areas. A malfunctioning criminal justice system is anything but rare.
Government screws up far more often when it comes to prosecuting criminal behavior than police brutalize innocent citizens. The numbers aren't even close. A woman by the name of Heather McDonald wrote a book documenting these kinds of statistics, and the players ought to read it before they carry on during the national anthem.
All of this sounds like America in 2017. I don't know if that is a good thing. In fact, I'm pretty sure it isn't.
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