© Brad Mills / Reuters
US President Donald Trump has launched a petition targeting the NFL anthem protests, asking people to "show patriotism" by signing up to support standing during the national anthem.
The petition was launched on Thursday by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, and is the US president's latest move to target the wave of protests that has seen NFL players 'take a knee' while the national anthem is played before games.
"The President has asked for a list of supporters who stand for the National Anthem. Add your name below to show your patriotism and support," read the petition, which
appeared on the Republican National Committee website.
After an NFL owners' meeting earlier this week, commissioner Roger Goodell said the league believes players "should stand" for the anthem, but decided against punishing those who choose not to do so.Trump, however, has consistently called for any players who join the protests - which were started last season by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick - to be fired by their teams.
The US president criticized the NFL in a Twitter post on Wednesday, accusing it of "too much talk, not enough action."
The protests target perceived racial injustice in the US, and have spread from the NFL to other sports,
including the NHL.
Last weekend, players and coaching staff at
German soccer team Hertha Berlin kneeled during their league match against Schalke, to show support for "an open-minded world."
Friend of my sibling had a rather horrendous experience with hate crime this evening. So this guy was travelling on a train, he's of pakistani descent... when a passenger approached him accusing him of being a terrorist and demanding to see the contents of his bag. He refused at which point the passenger got irate and proceeded to say he was a cop before forcefully taking his bag etc.
After a scuffle etc and the man having opened his bag and such a conductor came into the carriage at which point my sibling's friend had to leave to go to another carriage so he could sit down in peace away from the paranoid passenger. At the next stop, the man was arrested by waiting cops - thank God!!!
The guy obviously let all his friends know about this, accompanied with pictures and the lot - after all, it's not everyday you are a victim of hate crime. One thing he wondered though after the whole ordeal is why no one in his carriage intervened to stop the guy even when he asked for help... is it because they were all essentially racist?
I told my sibling, well well... best beware of what they call diffusion of responsibility. If you are ever in such a situation, don't ambiguously call for help.. what you do is you point to someone very specific and ask that person to help... all the responsibility will then be on that person and psychologically they'll be under greater pressure to step up as compared to when the sense of responsibility gets diffused resulting in no one stepping up. Take note folks... times are a-changing.