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The NFL says there is “no basis” for a personal conduct investigation against Michael Bennett after the head of the union that represents Las Vegas police officers asked NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to investigate and “take appropriate action” against the Seattle Seahawks defensive end for alleging officers racially profiled him in an incident after the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight on Aug. 26.
The letter by the Las Vegas Police Union comes a day after Bennett said he was detained “for doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The NFL concluded there was no cause to launch any probe.
“There is no allegation of a violation of the league’s personal conduct policy and therefore there is no basis for an NFL investigation,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy wrote in an email to USA TODAY Sports.
There you have it. That is the reason that NFL viewership was down last year and while that trend will continue this year.
Las Vegas Police respond to an active shooter in a casino and according to Undersheriff Kevin McMahill found Bennett crouching behind a slot machine and when he saw cops he ran away outside the casino and into traffic. Police pursued, detained him for ten minutes and then released him when they discovered that he ran for no apparent reason.
While some, including Bennett and likely the NFL will dispute that, we know it is true because in American Policing in 2017, the Undersheriff would not dare say anything that was not supported 100%…..likely by video. There are approximately 120 videos of the incident and that is exactly why we know that Bennett’s claim of racism is false.
In the body camera footage, police ran by hundreds of African Americans but it was supposedly Bennett that they profiled?
We know the NFL condones kneeling for the National Anthem and apparently the NFL condones running from cops as well.
Even more troubling is Bennett’s vocal accusation of racial profiling and for that, we hope that those officers involved take appropriate legal action against him.
There is nothing worse in America today than being called a racist and to do it falsely drives a deeper wedge between law enforcement and the community that they serve.
Bennett is a icon and he has a duty to correct this wrong. He already kneels for the National Anthem so we suspect he will keep the lie up just like others have done in Ferguson and other high profile incidents.
If Bennett doesn’t correct the wrong, then NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell should.
He won’t and he has already dealt his hand when he said that the league office “will support Michael and all NFL players in promoting mutual respect between law enforcement and the communities they loyally serve and fair and equal treatment under the law.”
We suppose the only saving grace about this incident today is that President Obama didn’t get in front of a microphone and launch into the institutional racism of law enforcement rant which unfortunately was common until this year. Why not? After all, a bunch of cops run towards gunfire inside a casino while thousands are running away only to find some guy later identified as a kneeling NFL player hiding from them who then runs away from the very cops there to save citizens.
We suppose in the America that the NFL promotes, cops should just ignore that?
If that day comes and if cops continue to be treated in this fashion, it is highly likely.
