Criminal defense attorney Mike Cavalluzzi and former prosecutor Loni Coombs discuss the protest by NFL players of the St. Louis Rams, who displayed the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” sign to protest the Ferguson grand jury decision before last Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders.
The move - which the players did to protest the grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the deadly shooting of Michael Brown - drew criticism from the St. Louis police department and the media.
“For those players, to show their disappointment with what the grand jury did by holding up their arms and saying ‘Don’t Shoot,’ is completely a legitimate express of how they were feeling,” said Cavalluzzi.
“NFL players are no different from anybody else. Students have sit-ins – the walk out of classes when they protest, they don’t go to school to protest, employees don’t go to work. There are all kinds protests, this is their form or public protest,” he added.
“I hate it when people say celebrities shouldn’t be activists. So what, why does anybody have their voice cut off. I think that not only everyone can, but should speak up for what they believe in, I don’t have a problem with that,” said Coombs.
“My one concern – and it’s a small concern – is that I think sometimes you need to pick and choose the context of where you want to get your message out,” she said, adding that the NFL protest was seen by millions of people all over the country and could potentially have led to violent incidents among people on different sides of the issue.
Watch the full episode to also hear a discussion of the grand jury decision in New York regarding the NYPD chokehold death and for an update on the Bill Cosby rape allegations.
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