I take back almost every nice thing I wrote about 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick earlier this year while defending him from national ridicule.
The young man from Turlock became a polarizing figure by refusing to stand for the national anthem before 49ers games to protest police brutality. President-elect Donald Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, led a chorus of Kaepernick critics suggesting the NFL player should leave the country. Death threats even came Kaepernick’s way, and his Twitter feed was filled with N-word slurs.
I backed Kaepernick’s constitutional right of free speech and his nonviolent protest because we need to remain vigilant about how the police applies use-of-force tactics.