The St Louis Police Officers Association spokesman who said that the St. Louis Rams' "Hands up, don't shoot" gesture was “tasteless, offensive and inflammatory” has been schooled with a sharp retort by Missouri State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D).
State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-University City)
Below the orange squiggle for the take down.
Missouri State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal released this statement to CBSNews reacting to Roorda's comments, saying, "Mr. Roorda seems like a very angry man. Perhaps it is because he lost his Senate race in a Democratic district this last November."
"Furthermore, it is interesting that Mr. Roorda wants to limit the free speech of professional football players, when he and I both strongly support police officers and fire fighters having the right to free speech while off duty," Chapelle-Nadal said. "Mr. Roorda is bitter. Instead of limiting free speech he should give more hugs to people that are not as privileged as himself. The world needs more love and hopefully America will join me in praying for the man to become more compassionate."
Ouch. Perhaps the reference to giving more hugs is an allusion to the
photo from the rally in Portland, a good-cop/bad-cop reference of sorts?
Indcidentally, Roorda is a Democratic State Rep. in MO. Raw Story has a good story on his past actions: "Ex-cop behind St. Louis police NFL threat has history of lying, protecting crooked cops".
(update: Just saw this excellent diary about Roorda by tmservo433 on the rec list.)
UPDATE:
1:49 PM PT: In a related but separate development, Sen. Chappelle-Nadal just introduced a bill to require all Missouri police to wear body cameras. The bill also
scales back the current "use of deadly force" laws in Missouri, allowing officers to use deadly force only in instances where a suspect poses a clear danger to the officer or the public.
There are a number of good things in this bill. They are proposals for positive, concrete change to police policies that will contribute to a saner system.
(h/t to Angie in WA State for helping to make diary clearer)