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Today's unionized cops never would have survived the 1960s

St. Louis police union has a cow over powerful gesture by Rams' players

Unless you're living in a cave -- in which case, consider yourself very lucky these days -- you've probably heard about the five players from the St. Louis Rams who came out for yesterday's "game" against the hapless Oakland Raiders in the now-famous "hands up, don't shoot" gesture to support the Ferguson protesters. Apparently, the sight nearly caused poor Jeff Roorda, the formerly fired-for-lying ex-cop who became an elected official (there's a surprise) and St. Louis police union leader, to suffer a public fainting spell.

Roorda and his union -- which has already shown hostility toward free speech on the streets of Ferguson -- immediately begged the NFL to fine or otherwise punish the Rams players for their simple and powerful gesture. (The league, to its credit, immediately rejected this insane notion.) If Roorda and the St. Louis cops can't handle this episode, one can only imagine how it would have viewed THIS:

By the way, one point I've tried to stress in my recent posts on Ferguson is the way that supporters of Officer Darren Wilson and his actions have been relentless in trying to work the bigger narrative.  Roorda's statement last night may have been the ultimate example. It said in part: "I'd remind the NFL and their players that it is not the violent thugs burning down buildings that buy their advertiser's [sic] products." He can "remind" the NFL whatever  he wants, but what the Rams' players did had nothing to do with people burning down buildings. but everything to do with supporting a local community that is angry over injustice and hurting over the loss of one of its own. Once again, Jeff Roorda is twisting the truth. He needs to be called out, every single time.