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Oakland High School Football Players Lay On Ground With Their Hands Up In Protest During National Anthem [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 11:18 PST, Sep 24, 2016

Taking a cue from Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers, an Oakland, California, high school football team has taken their protest of the national anthem up a notch. On the heels of another high-profile police shooting of an African-American male in North Carolina and another in Oklahoma, the Oakland high school football players decided to do something more memorable and relevant than simply kneeling during the national anthem. As NBCSports reports, the team took their protest against police brutality in the U.S. to the heart of the matter by laying on the ground with their hands up during the playing of the national anthem.

The move comes roughly a month after the Kaepernick protest took the world by storm and divided a country already divided by a contentious presidential campaign cycle.

Reportedly, Colin Kaepernick was present at the Oakland high school football game at which the team showed their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and protested so succinctly and non-violently against police brutality in America.

Photographs of the Oakland high school football team laid out on the ground, hands in the air in protest, during the national anthem also showed Kaepernick kneeling during the anthem.

While the admittedly non-violent protest tact taken by the Oakland high school football team may seem extreme and controversial to some, it comes at a time when police brutality, and fatal police shootings in particular, are at the forefront of the American media circus. In the last week alone, two more African-American men had their lives cut short by overzealous police officers who shot first and asked questions later.

In the case of Terence Crutcher, a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the white female cop who took his life without provocation has been charged with manslaughter for her actions. Unfortunately for his family, regardless of what consequences his killer ultimately faces, no legal consequences can bring back a dead man. So, the Oakland high school football team protested.

In the case of Keith Lamont Scott out of Charlotte, North Carolina, there is some controversy as to what caused police to shoot and kill him. According to all accounts, he had been waiting in his vehicle for his son to get out of school. His family says he was unarmed, reading a book. They released video substantiating their claims. In the clip, his wife can be heard repeatedly encouraging him to comply with police and assuring law enforcement officers that he didn’t have a weapon.

Despite his wife’s efforts, he was shot and killed by an African-American cop for “refusing to comply.” Local police have yet to release their video of the events, but reportedly that footage could become available as early as tonight. Whatever that footage may divulge, the Scott case was one more instance of an African-American citizen losing his life at the hands of law enforcement.

So, the Oakland high school football team protested.

And non-violently, too.

Not every protester with a bone to pick with U.S. police brutality and the slaughter of so many African-American citizens by law enforcement has curbed their violence as well as the Oakland high school football team. In the wake of the Charlotte slaughter of Keith Lamont Scott, locals in North Carolina have taken to the streets every night since he died.

Their protests, unlike that of the Oakland high school football players, have not remained non-violent. Assaults, fires, looting, and even the shooting death of one protester at the hands of another has been reported.

Despite the non-violent nature of the protest by the Oakland high school football team, there are many who say it’s inappropriate and that it’s unpatriotic — that it’s a slap in the face of Americans and vets alike.

So far, the Oakland high school football team hasn’t issued a public apology or anything of that nature in regard to their political protest. Since Colin Kaepernick began kneeling instead of standing during the national anthem, the protest against police brutality has spread throughout the world of professional, collegiate, and now even high school sports.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Oakland high school football players will see their protest emulated by other teams around the nation.

[Featured Image by Shutterstock]

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