San Francisco 49ers quarterback and Turlock native, Colin Kaepernick, has taken to Instagram after hearing of the killing of a man outside of a Louisiana convenience store.
On Tuesday, July 5, around 12:35 a.m., Baton Rouge Police Department responded to a disturbance call from a person claiming to be threatened with a gun by a black man selling CD’s.
An altercation between the man, Alton Sterling, and police occurred, causing Sterling to be shot to death.
The investigation has been ongoing, however, current 49ers player and former Pitman High School graduate Colin Kaepernick weighed in on the issue, calling it “2016 lynching.”
“This is what lynchings look like in 2016! Another murder in the streets because the color of a man's skin, at the hands of the people who they say will protect us. When will they be held accountable? Or did he fear for his life as he executed this man?” Kaepernick stated in a caption accompanied by cell phone footage from the scene.
The football player’s Instagram followers have since taken to the comments to create a debate. Commenters are arguing that facts should be had before these kind of judgments or statements are made, whereas others are reinforcing Kaepernick’s criticism of the “people who they say will protect us.”
Colin Kaepernick started posting racism on his Instagram more and more after October/December 2015.
Kaepernick has over 1,000,000 followers. The account’s featured website link goes to the Apple app store to purchase “GameTime Football 2 w/Colin Kaepernick & Dez Bryant.
