This was one of the best things I’ve read in a long long time. As we look at the terrible extremes and social pressures Andrew Hawkins strikes the perfect tone and very clear perspective. And this is what we need more than anything else. Not the hate, anger and extremism on both sides but an honest look at the entire picture and what we need to do about it. I was really enlightened and inspired by reading this.
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Word.
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Methinks Kris Kluwe has some competition for clarity, honesty and forthrightness…
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“Speaking without notes”?
Most politicians can’t do that. Perhaps it’s because they don’t believe what they say.
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So a call for justice shouldn’t offend or disrespect anybody. A call for justice shouldn’t warrant an apology.
Gotcha!, Bingo!, Snap!, and FTW.
Hawkins 1 – Police Union 0
What an incredibly well thought out reply. I’d want this man on my team any time. And his mom sounds pretty good too.
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Bravo!
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Unifying for whom exactly?
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When ever some drone attempts to remind me that “cops protect me”, I remind them that I, as a tax payer, pay their salaries.
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Police and civilians who have a high regard for justice, was how I read it.
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I hope they’re at the forefront here.
Dylan,
Are we supposed to be surprised that the black football player spoke thoughtfully and without notes? Does TPM use similar news hooks for statements coming from whites?
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The Police Union owes the football player an apology IMO. While unions represent their members, even the flawed ones, to overreact as they did deserves the repuke. Tamir Rice was shot within seconds of the Clevelsnd Police officer exiting the car. Another murder caught on camera.
The officer who shot the 12 year old had been let go by another police department in Ohio due to immaturity and poor judgment in regard to gun safety, but the Cleveland Police Department had no policy in place to check that background, Who deserves the repuke from the Police Union? Maybe they should repuke the Cleveland Police Department for hiring an incompetent, immature officer and saddling the Union with defending him.
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note to BillO: athletes do ‘get it’. I hope Andrew keeps his license and registration handy this week as I predict some traffic stop problems. you do not want to be seen reaching around things in your car
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This young man has exactly the right stuff. A very thoughtful and eloquent rebuttal of those thoughtless folks who disparage what he stands for.
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Wow, he responded so much more reasonably than I would have after being publicly (and wrongly) rebuked like he had been.
He’s pretty damn good off the cuff, isn’t he?
Love this.
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The use of “thoughtful” seems to be in contradistinction to the statement of the police union rep, whose comments were anything but thoughtful. There was an opportunity for Hawkins to offer a return quip (as a person of any race might have done under the same circumstances), calling the police “pathetic” as the union rep called him, but instead he provided a thoughtful response.
And the “without notes” line was borrowed from an ESPN reporter who is likely pretty well versed in speaking with athletes. It seems like it was generally meant as a statement that the remarks were coming straight from the man’s heart.
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It seems that, universally, police unions need to start hiring some PR people. They are running amok, now.
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Now, the question is, will the Teabaggers just quietly go home with their tails between their legs, or will they scream with helpless and shameless fury, like they have been doing for the last six years?
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Lots of support here for this talented, thoughtful athlete and I agree he deserves it but I must be crazy because it just seems we continue to talk over one another about the overall current state of race relations. Every day police and prosecutors indict and vigorously fight to put behind bars people who acted antisocially without intent but produced anti social outcomes. Just as an example in my home town the Sates Attorney decided to prosecute a mom for sleeping with her child, because she rolled over and tragically killed her child and was apparently slightly drunk and stoned when she went to bed according to the toxicological report on her blood. Lock up the co sleeping suburbanites before no child is safe!
I don’t think even progressive thinking, demonstrably tolerant white people get all that’s going on in the minds and communities of minority citizens. In the vast majority of serious crimes, the prosecutors and police regularly just simply look for the physical evidence of death and other horrifying outcomes and attempt the harshest punishment obtainable be brought to the person whose actions apparently and empirically caused the event. We have some inner reason suspension instinct that sees no major sociological cost for taking the bad result, with little or no regard for presence of intent, and letting that be our yardstick for enforcement and punishment harshness.
That’s the thing that totally eludes a lot of the people who so self righteously declare the killers of big Mike Brown and the others as totally justified and even heroic. And for many of us Caucasians on the left, we over-correct and say all manner of potentially threatening behavior by minorities around police should not only be tolerated but understood, expected and even preemptively forgiven. That’s wat we would hope they would do if it was our own child.
What we don’t ever seem to be aware of though, at least in any way I have noticed is that we pretty much like punishing humans who cause death to others no matter how fleetingly culpable they might be and we do it with celebration almost when people harm or kill kids with their provable, but not necessarily thoughtful. fully intended actions.
I think that’s a big reason why minorities, sometimes even unconsciously come to the conclusion that we just don’t like black people. We’ll fry even a slightly intoxicated white person who inadvertently ran down a white pedestrian child, no matter how little evidence their is that the guy’s substance influence caused the death or how obvious it is that he had no intention of killing the poor kid. We see death or egregious injury to a white child, we abide harsh punishment-. Its a daily occurrence. Nearly no one stands up and talks about the other side of the story, the unfortunate maybe barely preventable actual circumstances that led to the death.
Contrast that to these unarmed black youth deaths at the hands of white peace officers where there is a deafening silence of hand wringing and decorum surrounding even the indictment of the guys that rapid fire empty clips of ammunition into children because they are 25% believably mortally fearful of them. Even this empowered NFL superstar is (I believe) tempering his remarks about how that deep down makes him feel about societies bazaar relative assessment of the value of his young son in comparison to cute young white children killed by just about anything but an inanimate object with no one close by. Someone almost always has to pay.
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I think that line is the best! I defy ANYONE to deny that sentiment. That should should leave a mark on that douchebag cop for sure.
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