The Cleveland Browns have issued a response to Cleveland Police Union President Jeff Follmer, who requested an official apology from the organization after wide receiver Andrew Hawkins wore a “Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford” t-shirt prior to Sunday’s game.
Here’s the statement the Browns released to Channel 5.
We have great respect for the Cleveland Police Department and the work that they do to protect and serve our city. We also respect our players’ rights to project their support and bring awareness to issues that are important to them if done so in a responsible manner.
Though NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said he’s not wild about the pre-game shirts with “I Can’t Breathe” and other appeals for justice (worn by LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, as well as players league wide), NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has basically turned a blind eye.
Goodell’s dealing with image issues of his own, of course, after the Ray Rice disaster earlier this year, but it’s nonetheless good to see the Browns for standing up for Hawkins here.
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2014.
A VICTORY FOR THE BROWNS……AND THEIR ORGANIZATION. ….IT WAS INDEED IMPORTANT TO RESPOND TO THE UNION PRESIDENT, A REPRESENATIVE FOR THE CLEVELAND POLICE DEPARTMENT, HOWEVER, THIS IS A GREATER ISSUE. THE COMMENTS FOLLMER MADE WERE INSENSITIVE AND EVOKED A RACIAL TONE. #JeffFollmerIsARAcist QUOTES…. “It’s pretty pathetic when athletes (HE EVOKED BLACK ATHLETES) think they know the law,” Jeff Follmer, head of the Police Union, wrote in a statement to Cleveland WEWS-Channel 5. “They should stick to what they know best on the field. THIS IS A RACIST COMMENT…. … HIS WORDS WERE A FORM OF PROTEST ON BEHALF OF THE CLEVELAND POLICE. THEY OBJECTED TO A BLACK ATHETES EXPRESSING HIMSELF ABOUT AN ISSUE THAT AFFECTS HIM DEEPLY. #AndrewHawkinsIsAHero OBVIOUSLY KNOWS THE LAW, SINCE JUSTICE FOR TAMIR HASN’T BEEN SERVED AND TO ASSUME THAT FOOTBALL IS WHAT HAWKINS KNOWS BEST IS AN INSULT. JEFF FOLLMER REPRESENTS THE POLICE DEPARTMENT, HIS VOICE IS THEIR VOICE AND THIS IS DANGEROUS.
love the browns.. exercise your rights to freedom of speech.. justice for all
WHY ARE YOU YELLING?
Thank you Andrew Hawkins! Jeff Fullmouth can learn from you on how to be a REAL MAN.
Hell yea browns! Love wat power do!
uh, the word is “what”. Language is REAL power.
Justice was served PARENTS need to raise their children RIGHT .
The Parents are at fault !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The parents are at fault for their children being killed by cops? Get a clue, Joyce…
Good for the Browns. It takes a lot of nerve to ask for an apology like that.
Peaceful Protest, is just that. Stating one’s point of view in a peaceful manner. In my opinion, the police dept. had a lot of nerve to demand an apology for the crime they committed. Saying that a 12 year old looked like a 24 year old is laughable. I thought using a gun was the last resort. Too many times I have seen police talk white people out of using violence. For Black Men and Youth, the hue of their skin automatically makes them a suspect. What happened to Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Tamar Rice being given the due process of law?
Cops. Such sensitive murderers.
Funny thing is everyone seems to forget that the NFL like anything else is a business and its employees, agree or not, represent that business. The goal of any business is to attract as many customers as possible and anytime you are jeopardizing your employers business for your own political gain WHILE AT WORK (as way the case with Artrell Hawkins) I personally feel you are out of line. Players don’t have a right, just as I or you, don’t have a right to walk into our job and spread our ideology/ beliefs to the customer. HE/THEY DO have the right to say or do whatever they want on their own time on their own platform away from where it could be construed as being the same beliefs and or feelings of his employers ie the Browns and the NFL.
It’s important that Browns players follow these important issues in society, cause God knows they didn’t practice or think about football. 30-0? Lol
Who cares about the browns anyway or some unknow player. Goodluck watching the superbowl again. Lmao
Police should simply walk away from the stadium. Because all imply that they ONLY try to kill innocent upstanding members of the community. I believe they would be better served by letting their message be heard loud and clear with NO security provided at the game. Then there will be no possibility of another “innocent” person being harmed…
everyone is entitled to voice an opinion and excercise freedom of speech when conveyed in a non violent manner but silence perpetuates ignorance. this matter is beyond race anyone who’s 12 yo child was gunned down at the hands of officer or civilian would seek proper justice whether the childs actions were correct or questionable it is still a child. thank you Hawkins for having a voice.
How dare anyone support the police on this issue!! NO CHILD SHOULD DIE Because of Police stupidity! That Child was killed 2 secs after the cops arrived they never even saw the gun! Have you not seen the video? WTF Is wrong with you idiots!!
F.O.P. Down with the F.O.P. They refer Questionable recruits to be hired and defend them when it’s clear, that the Officer is wrong. Officers have the power to alter lives like no other Profession. Let the current Police force’s hiring records be securitized, and lets see what they arrest sheet look like. Lets see how many of them failed the polygraph test. Lets see how many of those with questionable passes were referred by the F.O.P. Lets force out all racist cops. Lets force out all incompetent Police Officers. And why do we have so many Law Enforcement Agencies anyway? Police, Highway Patrol, Sheriffs, ATF, POSTMASTER GENERAL (Elliot Ness) DEA, FBI, CIA, SWAT, U.S. Marshalls
I completely agree with the Brown’s response. The t shirts call for justice – that’s all. However I do not agree with Charmel above. He “evoked” black athletes? To presume a comment about athletes only refers to black ones is irresponsible. The man represents a police force that has a high percentage of black officers – would not his comments in support of police “evoke” black cops? Don’t lose credibility and confuse the core issue here – the cop in this case was wrong and the young man should not have died. There should be consequences.
All people should be able to protest peacefully. Charges would be brought period.
This is a disgrace!!! If I go to work wearing t-shirts for a cause I believe in…I would be fired!!!! Shame on those Browns
You know they are talking abou body cameras.but what good are they going to do when the camera caught. The police. Murdering the brother and still nothing was done till and until their minor infractions. Are publishable. Under the same law that they impose. Upon usThey are going to keep getting away with murder or the people. Just get sick an tired of being sick an. Tired. For this of you Think that this United states. Are for the black man take a look around. U. Look in the jails. Better yet just look how they have treated our. President this how they do it some body tell me how can a law over ride the constitution of the United stars of America. So they put in place a law that says if convicted. Of a felony. That you don’t have the right bare arms to protect your self oh let me not get off the path of your rights my Big Brother I. Applaud. You. For standing UP for RIGHTOUSNESS MAY THE GODS BE WITH U I just wish. A lot more Black WOMEN AND MEN WITH RECONITION WOULD STANNDUP
I am glad go browns make your voices heard
The shooting was plainly unnecessary. The union is protecting an unnecessary killing. The player is questioning it, and the police say they are above question. Bad optics, bad politics, bad morality. Follmer did the union no favor. Get rid of him. You can’t blunder like that.
I have several cops in my immediate family and am friends with many more cops. The problem is the police are in complete denial about what the country has come to think of them in general. It can no longer be explained away as just a couple of bad apples. Thuggish and even murderous behavior by police has become an epidemic.
The law-abiding members of the police union need to demand an apology from the union leader for implying that justice is something they don’t live and work for.
If anyone owes an apology, it is the Cleveland Police Union president, and Chief of Police, to the people of the City of Cleveland who pay their salaries. They have, once again, expressed the arrogance of abusive authority, and the killing of a 12 year old innocent is like water off a duck’s back to them. But the incidents of unarmed black men, and children, is accummulating, and the public tolerance is going to zero very quickly. The other killings in Ferguson, Beavercreek, New York and elsewhere, are bringing this explosive issue to critical mass.
Lord Acton said it ‘dead-on’ (pun intended) “Power corrupts,and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The power of life and death is absolute power, humanly speaking, and when a police officer is robotically trained to shoot first, and talk later, then we have become the prisoners of an occupying army whose tolerance of us borders on the homicidal. The leash must be shortened, and if the Cleveland Police Department doesn’t approve of this dog-like metaphor, then the burden of proof is on every member of the department to ‘protect and SERVE” – their primary mission, and prove otherwise with their actions.