Nearly every day, there are headlines about high schoolers, college students, singers and professional athletes taking a knee or sitting out during a pregame performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
These protests have come after Colin Kaepernick, of the San Francisco 49ers, refused to stand during the national anthem for this year’s NFL games. Kaepernick, and those who have followed in his footsteps, wish to open a dialogue about racism in the United States, specifically the number of high-profile police shootings of African-Americans.
On Friday night in Middletown, New Jersey, students, teachers, parents and residents came together to turn the pregame ceremony into something a little different before a football game between Middletown High School South and rival Toms River North.
The pregame ceremony included a mammoth tribute to police officers, firefighters, military and other first responders.
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"There's too much violence going on," Carmine Babino told the Asbury Park Press.
“I didn’t grow up in that, and I don’t want them to grow up in that,” he said of his children.
Hundreds of local officers came together to march on the field. Linden police Officer Angel Padilla, who helped capture bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahimi, was given an award. Bagpipes played, people cheered and an American flag was unfurled on the field.
Despite the good tidings of the event, the American Civil Liberties Union believed that it set a frightening precedent.
“The statements made by the deputy police chief and the event’s ostentatious show of power send an ominous, frightening message: that, as an official stance, law enforcement will not tolerate expressions acknowledging our nation’s history of unequal treatment and systematic oppression,” Jasmine Crenshaw, ACLU-NJ organizer, said.
Prior to the game, Middletown Deputy Police Chief Steve Dollinger had condemned those who protest the national anthem.
“It’s OK to stand up for social justice, inequality and reform,” Dollinger said, according to the Asbury Park Press.
“It’s another thing to not stand up for the national anthem.”
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