On November 24th, 2014, The St. Louis Rams vs. Oakland Raiders played against each other in Week 13 NFL game. Before the game, five Rams players took the field with a “Hands up, don’t shoot” pose. Nearly four months ago on August 9th, 2014, Michael Brown an 18-year-old, was shot 12 times by Officer Darren Wilson of a Missouri Police Department. Wilson claims he fired in self-defense as Brown “charged” him. Brown didn’t have a gun and responded to Wilson shortly after killing him, “Don’t shoot!”. The community of Missouri and social media were outraged when Wilson wasn’t indicted, which sparked protests around St. Louis and added more fuel to the Black Lives Matter movement, which had already been picking up steam before this incident. St. Louis prosecutor Robert McCulloch announced that a grand jury declined to indict police officer Darren Wilson for shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was unarmed. The “Hands up, don’t shoot” pose was being used in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the country around the time of this tragic story.
The five Rams players who walked out onto the field with the pose were: Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Kenny Britt, Chris Givens, and Stedman Bailey. Later that evening after the 52-0 win over the Raiders, the St. Louis Police Association released a statement condemning the actions of the St. Louis Rams players. In the statement business manager, Jeff Roorda wanted the NFL to discipline the organization and players, calling the situation, remarkably hypocritical.
The outside media discussed this story and felt that the officer, Darren Wilson, should have been indicted for shooting at Brown 12 times and landing six of them. This act from the Rams played an important role in bridging the gap between human-life activism and pro football. This event happened before the infamous Colin Kaepernick kneeling situation and before that event, many NFL players and staff weren’t allowed to show their activist beliefs. Jared Cook and the others were receiving death threats from people who found their actions “disrespectful” towards Police officers. Overall, I’d say the media narrative somewhat suppressed the impact the Rams players tried to make by the St. Louis police department demanding they be reprehended for their actions.
VIDEO: Jared Cook explains why he and Rams players posed “Hands up, don’t shoot”.
https://www.cnn.com/2014/12/04/us/rams-threats-ferguson/index.html
Sources:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/michael-brown-killed-by-police-ferguson-mo
https://www.si.com/nfl/2014/11/30/st-louis-rams-ferguson-protests