Roughly 75 past and present members of the NYPD banded together by the Brooklyn Bridge to rally in support of Colin Kaepernick on Saturday, August 19.
Dressed in black t-shirts bearing the hashtag #imwithkap, individual officers from among the convening took turns coming up to speak on why they are choosing to back the unsigned quarterback. Various officers spoke to the unspoken realities they've witnessed on the force, that speak to Kaepernick's fight for the nation to confront systemic racism in law enforcement and beyond. "Until racism in America is no longer taboo, we own up to it, we admit it, we understand it and then we do what we have to do to solve it, unfortunately, we're going to have these issues," NYPD Sgt. Edwin Raymond said, before members of the New York press.
Also on hand was legendary NYPD whistleblower Frank Serpico, who was depicted by Al Pacino in the 1973 film "Serpico," which documented his fight to expose the 'Blue Wall of Silence' code that officers complied with, in their refusal to turn on one another in spite of dirty policing. "He's trying to hold up this government up to our founding fathers," the 81-year-old former cop said of Kaepernick.
