Nike Faces Backlash For Giving Discount To Law Enforcement Officers On Law Enforcement Appreciation Day
[guest post by Dana]
Recognizing Law Enforcement Appreciation Day on Wednesday, which coincided with National Police Week, Nike and Converse offered a 30% discount at their stores to any officers who showed their badge. Not everyone was happy about the recognition the company extended toward first responders, and some Nike customers even felt betrayed:
“I support #BoycottNike because I’m feeling punitive. We can’t punish killer cops. We can’t punish the media who criminalize black corpses…”
Black people are the source of Nike’s income and they have the audacity to support law enforcement while we’re being murdered. #BoycottNike
Damn @Nike @Converse how many of the hundreds of victims of police brutality were wearing your products this year #BlackLivesMatter
Nike released the following statement in response to the anger:
“Nike has held discount days in its stores for first responders, including law enforcement and the military, since 9/11. Nike has no intention to offend anyone, nor to imply that we are insensitive to the serious and important issues between law enforcement and black communities in America. We care about and support efforts to continue discussions to create positive change and bring equality for everyone in our society.”
President Obama released a proclamation recognizing Police Week.
In part:
Our law enforcement officers have extraordinarily tough jobs. They regularly work in dangerous environments and in difficult, high-tension situations. And they often face challenges deeply rooted in systemic problems and broader social issues. These professionals serve to protect their communities and strengthen their Nation, and they deserve to go home safely to their loved ones at the end of each shift. As President, I am committed to making sure America’s dedicated police officers receive the support and recognition they have earned, and to doing all I can to protect those who protect us.
One important way to make policing safer and more effective is by continuing to enhance relations and trust between law enforcement and the neighborhoods they serve. This will make it easier and safer for police officers to do their jobs, and it will strengthen the places we live and work. This important task will require our Nation — our communities, our law enforcement, and our leaders at every level — to come together to commit to meeting this challenge and moving our country forward, block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood. As President, I firmly believe it is within our power to make progress in our time, and I am dedicated to partnering with all those who are willing to do this necessary work.
My Administration is taking concrete steps to implement the commonsense, pragmatic recommendations my Task Force on 21st Century Policing put forward based on input from law enforcement personnel as well as criminal justice experts, community leaders, and civil liberties advocates. And we are engaging with local jurisdictions so they can begin to make the changes that will help ensure that police officers and their communities are partners in battling crime and that everyone feels safe on and off the job.
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (86e864) — 5/15/2015 @ 4:54 pmAvoid like the plague any Dem who approaches with a sentence construction containing the phrase “commonsense.”
Gazzer (c1d25a) — 5/15/2015 @ 5:20 pmOr just grab your ankles and brace yourself.
Gazzer (c1d25a) — 5/15/2015 @ 5:20 pmthose shoes are expensive to where if you get the shoes you can’t afford no Starbucks that’s for sure
happyfeet (8ef0d1) — 5/15/2015 @ 5:30 pmNo they don’t. That’s a lie. The challenges they face are created by and exist in urban areas run by black, leftist democrats. That’s not a social issue, it’s a bad choice of politicians issue.
In other words the very same dumbass leftists who created the problem he’ll as to fix it. What a stupid, lying fool this man is. Is every democrat stuck on stupid and stuck on 1970 answers that haven’t worked ever?
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 5/15/2015 @ 5:47 pmYou know the dem answer. Throw more money at it, pass more laws, hire more public employees and start a task force. Bet his Task Force on 21st Century Policing will be a front for the Clinton Criminal Foundation and George SoroSS among others.
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 5/15/2015 @ 5:51 pmThose are the first brands Baltimore “shoppers” chose. Now that’s support.
jim (a9b7c7) — 5/15/2015 @ 6:19 pmI have a problem with these types of promotions. Police officers are well paid and have great benefits and pensions. Giving them a discount is unnecessary. Sorry for being a contrarian.
Denver (caca52) — 5/15/2015 @ 6:59 pmIf I had to live in them I’d wear White’s Smoke Jumpers.
http://www.whitesboots.com/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=455
As it was I was satisfied with the Danner Fort Lewis boots for winter and the Vietnam era jungle boots for Summer.
Plus the Navy issue flight boots and flight deck boots.
Although the steel toes did make getting through SERE at Warner Springs in February a tad more difficult as it was ****ing cold!
But I digress.
White’s Smoke Jumpers will cost you something along the lines of $500. But they’ll last you with the rebuild 20 years. If you’re hard on them.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 7:10 pmYes, they are well paid. And if you make your living on your feet you should make the investment.
And Nike shouldn’t make the offer it it can be scared off.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 7:13 pmIt’s too bad that Nike even felt a need to issue a statement in response to the “criticism”. It was completely unnecessary I think. Businesses will soon learn that they can’t please everybody. And it’s not as if there are no black and brown military, first responders, and cops.
elissa (2da290) — 5/15/2015 @ 7:42 pmAnd they have families.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 7:55 pmhttp://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/%E2%80%9Ccharge%E2%80%9D-philippine-scouts-and-the-last-horse-cavalry-charge-of-the-u-s-army/
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:02 pmI’ll apologize later for going off on tangents that seem unrelated.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:04 pm– 2nd Lt. Eliseo Malari, Platoon Leader, 2nd Platoon, Troop E, 26th Cavalry Regiment (Philippine Scouts
In my world we have too few who fight like hungry tigers. But there are some.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:10 pmMaybe I missed it… In all his chatter, Obama didn’t say anything about people who chose not to engage in lawless behavior being free of police involvement in their personal lives. The police– your best friends or worst enemy. Your choice. He also didn’t say the don’t relly like the police, the next time you are mugged call a community organizer.
Nike would have shown some real class if they had responded with “Its our business and we run it as we see fit.”
Gramps, the original (9e1415) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:39 pmhttp://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m89ishsCRO1rcoy9ro1_1280.jpg
Life is hard.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:46 pmI don’t believe this is in the cards anymore.
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/15/2015 @ 8:51 pmSomehow I think the President’s definition of common sense and pragmatism do not align with mine.
Common sense means acting in a prudent manner. Pragmatism means assessing the truth through experience.
How does either apply in modern liberal thought?
If anyone needs cites, I can direct you to any edition of the New York Times editorial page on any random date.
Ag80 (eb6ffa) — 5/15/2015 @ 9:38 pm“Black people are the source of Nike’s income ”
Yes, they are disproportionately the source of sales of $160 shoes. Also, of course, of stealing them from other blacks.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 5/15/2015 @ 9:43 pm@20– Don’t forget those midnight, firelight shopping sprees.
Its a mystery to me how a segment of society that by their own admission are unable to compete successfully in the economic world to the point that they need government subsidy in everything from food to housing can be a major consumer of $100 and more athletic shoes.
Wouldn’t the $30 variety from Big 5 do just as well and leave more money for for other things like food and stuff.
Gramps, the original (9e1415) — 5/15/2015 @ 10:30 pmR.I.P. Garo Yepremian, field goal kicker for the Miami Dolphins during their glory years
Icy (1a4d0e) — 5/15/2015 @ 10:38 pmYou actually don’t need to tell me who Garo Yapremian was,
Steve57 (e468ba) — 5/16/2015 @ 12:19 amIf black people are the source of Nike’s income then Nike has a rather stupid business model and could make a fortune selling their products to white folks, who outnumber blacks by almost 6 to 1 in the US (and how many black people buy Nike tennis gear?) Far more important for Nike is probably keeping their workforce happy, about 20% of their employees in the US are black, although since Nike employs an outsized number of black people then blacks would be hit harder than others by an effective boycott.
max (4fdf98) — 5/16/2015 @ 1:55 am.R.I.P. Garo Yepremian, field goal kicker for the Miami Dolphins during their glory years
And for one memorable play quarterback.
He represents the era when the Dolphins were a good team.
kishnevi (9c4b9c) — 5/16/2015 @ 5:38 amAllow me to point something out to you Gramps. In every country and every society on earth that “segment of society” is at the bottom of the totem pole. So it’s not just in the US (where we’ve pumped trillions into correcting the situation). I’ve seen it in Asia, Europe and South America.
And the reason they can buy $100 (or more) shoes and $400 Raiders jackets and $1000 gold chains, and bling, and “grills”, and Lincoln Navigators is precisely because WE pay for their food, WE pay for their rent, WE pay for their day care, WE pay for their health insurance, WE subsidize their utilities and cell phones and internet. Which means the welfare checks they get are 100% disposable income. We should be thankful they don’t piss it all away on drugs. Hope that clears it up for ya.
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 5/16/2015 @ 5:39 amhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCMItel7GNo#t=29
Garo Yepremian is unfortunately best remembered for “Garo’s Gaffe.” But he messed up in the Superbowl. 99.9% of us aren’t good enough athletes to mess up in the Superbowl.
Steve57 (25a5a0) — 5/16/2015 @ 6:53 amMy initial reaction to Hoagie’s broad brush was to recall Orwell’s observation:
ropelight (e1af20) — 5/16/2015 @ 7:21 amMaybe Nike could have a neighborhood appreciation night. After the store closes, the event wll kick off with a ritual breaking of the front window by store managers, who will then flee for their lives. The guests can then jump through the broken window and grab as many Nike products as they can hold. Light snacks and soft drinks will be served.
Patricia (5fc097) — 5/16/2015 @ 7:34 amIn a nutshell, this is why the progressive left hates the idea of free speech.
And, unfortunately, much of the GOP. I don’t think free speech has ever been popular. A lot of people will be wrong. But occasionally someone will blurt out a truth. And then we’ll have to look at it.
We can’t be having any of that.
Steve57 (25a5a0) — 5/16/2015 @ 7:39 amropelight, I tend to use a broad brush because too many times I’ve felt my Liberty being sucked away by a liberal saying; “but if it saves just one child”. I realize that Dr. Ben Carson is not the poster child for black America. The problem is, black America wouldn’t want him to be.
The democrats have taken black America and ruined their families, their churches, their social institutions, their men, their women and their future and have turned them into nothing more than farm animals to be fed and cared for till the next election where once again they will vote to destroy their own race. An now they’re looking to do the same with Hispanics and immigrants.
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 5/16/2015 @ 7:42 amListen guys, I know I come off a little gruff here so now my obligatory ” I have lots of friends who are black and always have” comment. And I talk in person in just this way. They know where I stand and I stand for absolute and total free and equal rights for every American, and absolutely zero special rights for any America.
I was born and raised in Philly so I had all kinds of friends. Every color and almost every religion. Several black friends and the only one without a father was because his dad was a construction guy and was killed on the job. All my black friends had two parents and surprise, they worked. They went to church on Sunday, came to PTA and sent their kids to camp with us in the summer.
Then came civil rights. It became more important for liberals to make sure a black could sit at a Woolworths counter than stay with his family, hold a job, pay taxes and be as responsible as any other parent and American. Well, now 70% of blacks are born out of wedlock, 45% of crime is committed by 13% of society and lets not talk about drugs and welfare.
The Klu Klux Klan would have been more merciful.
Hoagie (58a3ec) — 5/16/2015 @ 7:56 am@26– Maybe now that Patterico has the visit-counter thing fixed he can have the tech guy go to work on whatever scrubs of the sarcasm font….
Gramps, the original (9e1415) — 5/16/2015 @ 9:26 amI would put it another way, the left like the SDSers, that got some of their start in the civil rights movement, came to the conclusion that the entire middle class existence was the reason for the suppression of civil rights, Mailer’s white hipster, was along those lines,
narciso (ee1f88) — 5/16/2015 @ 9:29 am