St. Louis Rams Player: We Weren’t Trying to Bash Cops with ‘Hands Up’ Protest

Jared Cook, one of the St. Louis Rams who made the “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture on Sunday, explained to reporters why they decided to take such a bold stand. He said, “It wasn’t an out-of-line protest. It was a perfect example of a peaceful protest.”

A key issue with the protest was from St. Louis officers who called it disrespectful and demanded the team apologize, or at least the players be disciplined. The latter didn’t happen and there’s some confusion about the former, but Cook wanted to make it clear they weren’t trying to bash the police.

“Why would we come at the police in a disrespectful way,” he asked, “when we work with the police in the community all the time?… Why would I disrespect a group of men in the community that I have complete respect for?”

Watch the video below, via CNN:

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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