Rams players’ ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ protest draws the ire of police with a questionable past

December 1, 2014 in News by RBN Staff

Source: AOL News

STL Cops Upset With Rams' Players Ferguson Salute

 

By RYAN GORMAN

St. Louis Police have condemned the St. Louis Rams players who entered Sunday’s game making the “hands-up, don’t shoot” pose, but the statement was written by a former cop with a checkered past.

Jeff Roorda, who penned the St. Louis Police Officer’s Association condemnation, was fired from a Missouri police department in 2001 for filing false reports and also has been involved in fundraising efforts for Darren Wilson — the white cop who shot dead Michael Brown.

“[We’re] profoundly disappointed with the members of the St. Louis Rams football team who chose to ignore the mountains of evidence released from the St. Louis County Grand Jury this week and engage in a display that police officers around the nation found tasteless, offensive and inflammatory,” said the statement.

“Five members of the Rams entered the field today exhibiting the “hands-up-don’t-shoot” pose that has been adopted by protestors who accused Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson of murdering Michael Brown,” Roorda’s diatribe continued.

Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Stedman Bailey, Chris Givens and Kenny Britt are the Rams who entered Sunday’s game making the protest sign, the SLPOA called for them to be immediately punished by both the team and the NFL.

“The gesture has become synonymous with assertions that Michael Brown was innocent of any wrongdoing and attempting to surrender peacefully when Wilson, according to some now-discredited witnesses, gunned him down in cold blood,” the statement said.

“It is unthinkable that hometown athletes would so publicly perpetuate a narrative that has been disproven over-and-over again,” Roorda said.

Roorda himself is no stranger to acts many would deem unthinkable, according to multiple media reports.

The former cop was fired in 2001 by the Arnold (MO) Police Department for falsifying police reports, according to the Los Angeles Times. Similar accusations against him date back to at least 1997, court records revealed.

Roorda also was involved in Wilson fundraising efforts only days after the white officer gunned down the unarmed black teen, the Times reported, and even tried to get a bill passed earlier this year that prohibited law enforcement from releasing an officer’s name following a shooting unless the cop faces criminal charges.

The bill was dead on arrival.

Roorda even filed a false police report against his own police chief for failing to allow him to go on paternity leave, the Times revealed.

The NFL has since said there will be no disciplinary action taken against the players for their silent protest, which they claimed after the game was done to “promote solidarity” in the surrounding community.