One day after a nation­al orga­ni­za­tion rep­re­sent­ing police groups across America called for its mem­bers to boy­cott Nike for its sup­port of Colin Kaepernick, a group of black police offi­cers respond­ed by telling the appar­el com­pa­ny that they will keep cop­ping the new Nikes.

On Tuesday, the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), a col­lec­tion of police unions and groups from across the United States, released a newslet­ter telling its mem­bers across the coun­try to boy­cott Nike, accord­ing to Fox Carolina. The col­lec­tion of uni­formed snowflakes then sent a let­ter to Nike’s President and CEO whin­ing about the company’s deci­sion to use Kaepernick as the face of its cam­paign cel­e­brat­ing 30 years of “Just Do It.”

While the let­ter was white with a sub­stance that was either dried salt from white tears or pow­dered dough­nut residue, The Root has man­aged to obtain a copy:

Dear Chairman Parker,

On behalf of the more than 241,000 law enforce­ment offi­cers rep­re­sent­ed by our Association across the coun­try, I write to you to con­demn in the strongest pos­si­ble terms your selec­tion of Colin Kaepernick for Nike’s “Just Do It” ad cam­paign. Mr. Kaepernick is known, not as a suc­cess­ful ath­lete, but as a shal­low dilet­tante seek­ing to gain noto­ri­ety by dis­re­spect­ing the flag for which so many Americans have fought and died.

The inclu­sion of Mr. Kaepernick in Nike’s “Just Do It” ad cam­paign also per­pet­u­ates the false­hood that police are racist and aim­ing to use force against African Americans and per­sons of col­or. In real­i­ty, offi­cers across the nation risk their lives not only pro­tect­ing the ath­letes fea­tured in Nike’s var­i­ous cam­paigns, but also serve aspir­ing ath­letes across the coun­try who use the Nike brand, through the thou­sands of Police Athletic Leagues, Boys and Girls Clubs and Big Brother/​Big Sister pro­grams where our offi­cers donate their time and ener­gy. They deserve to have the respect and full sup­port of cor­po­rate cit­i­zens like Nike.

Adding to the insult is the image of Mr. Kaepernick from the cam­paign fea­tur­ing the quote “Believe in some­thing. Even if it means sac­ri­fic­ing every­thing.” The fact that Mr. Kaepernick is no longer a start­ing NFL play­er does not equate to him being some­one who has “sac­ri­ficed every­thing”. To tru­ly under­stand what it means to “believe in some­thing” and “sac­ri­fice every­thing”, you should look to Arlington National Cemetery, or to the National LawEnforcement Officers’ Memorial in Washington, D.C., or to the trau­ma unit of a mil­i­tary hos­pi­tal. The brave men and women of every race and col­or buried there, memo­ri­al­ized there, heal­ing there, believed in this nation and our flag and exem­pli­fy the true mean­ing of“sacrifice”.

Sincerely,

Michael McHale

After the let­ter was made pub­lic, the National Black Police Association made clear that they should not be includ­ed in the 241,000 police offi­cers on whose “behalf” the NAPO claimed to speak, the Intercept reports.

Basically, the let­ter, which can be read here, says: “Nah bruh. That’s just the white dudes.”

“It is with great dis­may that we were made aware of a let­ter that you received from the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) regard­ing the use of Colin Kaepernick in your ‘Just Do It’ adver­tis­ing cam­paign,” the let­ter begins. “The National Black Police Asociation (NBPA) is not in agree­ment on this mat­ter and we strong­ly con­demn the call for police offi­cers and their fam­i­lies to boy­cott Nike and its products.”

The let­ter stated:

Your inclu­sion of Mr. Kaepernick in your ads seems appro­pri­ate to us. We live in a coun­try where the 1st Amendment is a right of the peo­ple. Mr. Kaepernick chose to exer­cise his right where his pas­sion was — on the foot­ball field. NAPO believes that Mr. Kaepernick’s choice to open­ly protest issues sur­round­ing police bru­tal­i­ty, racism and social injus­tice in this coun­try makes him anti-police. On the con­trary, the NBPA believes that Mr. Kaepernick’s stance is in direct align­ment with what law enforce­ment stands for — the pro­tec­tion of a peo­ple, their human rights, their dig­ni­ty, their safe­ty, and their rights as American citizens.

OK, I must admit that I did a small, slight­ly Diddy-ish Holy Ghost shout after read­ing that paragraph.

The orga­ni­za­tion not­ed, “For NAPO to pre­sup­pose that Mr. Kaepernick has not made sac­ri­fices because he did not die on a bat­tle­field, shows you just how out of touch NAPO is with the African American com­mu­ni­ty,” adding that: “If they had asked the NBPA, we would have told them they were out of line.”

“We will like­ly be buy­ing and wear­ing a lot of Nikes in the near future,” the let­ter concludes.

Although this let­ter gave me great joy, I must admit that I don’t under­stand it.

If the black police offi­cers aren’t offend­ed by Kaepernick’s protest and seem to under­stand that protest­ing police bru­tal­i­ty doesn’t mean he is protest­ing all police, then why are the white cops so mad? If some vet­er­ans can under­stand that the protest has noth­ing to do with the troops, the flag or the anthem, then why are some white peo­ple burn­ing their socks?

Ooooh … I get it now. It’s just the racist ones!

They’re protest­ing because they hate black people.

And some peo­ple might counter that argu­ment with the fact that the NAPO is not racist. They might say those police offi­cers boy­cotting Nike and white peo­ple burn­ing their Air Force 45s have noth­ing to do with racism. They might even ask how I could mis­con­strue the rea­son for their boy­cott and accuse them of dis­re­spect and hate when they have pub­licly stat­ed the rea­son for their protest.

“Exactly,” said Colin Kaepernick.

Exactly.