Did the St. Louis Rams Apologize to Police for Michael Brown Gesture? No. Should They? No.

As noted in A.M. Links this morning, St. Louis
County police chief Jon Belmar is claiming that the NFL Rams have
apologized for players who made a “hands up” gesture in solidarity
with Michael Brown before Sunday’s game. A spokesman for the
Rams
says Belmar is wrong.

“I expressed regret for any perceived disrespect of law
enforcement,” Demoff said. “Our players’ goal was to show support
for positive change in our community. I do believe that supporting
our players’ First Amendment rights and supporting local law
enforcement are not mutually exclusive.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said county chief Jon Belmar told
his staff by email Monday night that Demoff had apologized. The
email said Demoff “clearly regretted that any members of the Rams
organization would act in a way that minimized the outstanding work
that police officers carry out each and every day.”

CNN has a slight variation on the
story:

“I received a very nice call this morning from Mr. Kevin Demoff
of the St. Louis Rams who wanted to take the opportunity to
apologize to our department on behalf of the Rams for the “Hands
Up” gesture that some players took the field with yesterday,”
Belmar wrote in the e-mail, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

But the Rams said that’s just not true.

“We did not apologize,” Rams spokesman Artis Twyman told
CNN.

The official St. Louis County Police Department Twitter feed
posted this:

Apology: “expression of regret for not being able to do
something” @kdemoff: “I
regretted any offense their officers may have taken.”

— St. Louis County PD (@stlcountypd) December
2, 2014

The
replies to that tweet are something to behold: “that doesn’t
prove your point!”; That’s fine, but Chief Belmar stated he
specifically apologized for the players gesture. That’s different”;
“Wow. You guys are really reaching…”; “oh shut the fuck up”;
“arguing semantics is always a sign that you’re in the right.”; and
more.

And the players
who made the gesture?

“We just understand that it’s a big tragedy and we hope
something positive comes out of it,” [Stedman] Bailey said,
following his five catch 100-yard performance.

Added [Jared] Cook: “We help build up the people around this
community daily with our visiting schools and talking to kids, so
coming out and showing that we’re unified with the rest of them, it
was key to us.”

Rams’ head coach Jeff Fisher said it was the players’ “choice to
exercise their free speech” and he won’t be commenting further on
the matter.

At 5-7, the Rams have enough to apologize for. Protestig events
in Ferguson—especially the over-reaction of cops to peaceful
demonstrators and the larger militarization of police around the
country—isn’t one of them.

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