The National Fraternal Order of Police won’t boycott Nike, but they made it crystal clear that they won’t stand for the company’s controversial Colin Kaepernick ad.
In a press release deliberately titled, “Believe In Something Even If It Means Sacrificing Everything,” Chuck Canterbury, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, issued a powerful dismissal of the Nike ad – and completely humiliated Kaepernick in the process.
“The Fraternal Order of Police has been called upon to boycott Nike for capitalizing on this former professional football player because he attracts controversy,” Canterbury says in the release. “In our experience, boycotts and similar exercises do not succeed and often serve only to enrich the company–which is not what we want to do. Our members and, for that matter, any American citizen, understands when the law enforcement profession is being insulted–we have no doubt they will make their purchases with that insult in mind..”
The statement continues, “If Nike chooses to create an ad campaign featuring a former quarterback who describes cops as ‘pigs’ and makes large donations to the family of a convicted cop killer and wanted fugitive, Joanne Chesimard, who murdered New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in cold blood in 1973, they are free to do so.”
Canterbury ends his statement on a poignant note: “Ultimately, this ad campaign will end and our nation will no longer associate ‘sacrifice’ and ‘sneakers.’ Instead, we will once again associate ‘sacrifice’ with our fellow Americans in our military and police departments who stand in harm’s way to protect the rest of us and our right to express ourselves.”
Press Release on Nike
“Since 2016, 381 cops have been killed in the line of duty. They believed in something and sacrificed everything as did the families they left behind. All of the men and women in law enforcement believe in something and are prepared to sacrifice everything” pic.twitter.com/j4OkjUxR4S
— National FOP (@GLFOP) September 5, 2018
Is there anything left to be said?
The FOP press release hit all the right notes – unlike the completely tone-deaf Nike ad. If people want to boycott Nike and burn their merchandise out of spite, they have the right to do so. However, posting pictures and videos of your destroyed Jordans achieves nothing save giving Nike free press – and, ultimately, that puts money back in their pockets.
The real way to get back at Nike is to ignore them and realize that their ad campaign – as well as Kaepernick’s “activism” – is completely trivial compared to the actual sacrifices of our men and women in uniform.
