A police officer mocked Colin Kaepernick’s political stances and physical appearance with his Halloween costume over the weekend, and the chief of the department has apologized to anyone who was offended.
On Sunday, a photo showed University of Nevada, Reno police officer Antonio Gutierrez dressed as Kaepernick with a sign around his neck that read “Will Stand for Food.” Gutierrez also wore a fake nose.
hey @unevadareno! one of your officers, Antonio Gutierrez, decided to go as a racist portrayal of #Kaep last night. this isn't ok!! pic.twitter.com/eCnYFcauxn
— ✨(202) 224 – 3121✨ (@glaserface) October 29, 2017
Adam Garcia, the department’s chief, issued a statement apologizing for Gutierrez’s costume choice.
“For those who have seen the Halloween costume of one of our officers apparently mocking a citizen who has chosen to take advantage of his constitutional right to protest, I offer my sincere apologies,” Garcia said, via News 4 in Reno. “Members of our profession are held to a higher standard and denigrating another – on or off duty – is insensitive for its lack of respect and lack of understanding on how others may negatively view their actions and may be impacted.
“I have heard from many members of our community over the past few weeks that they feel unsafe on campus because of our current social and political climate. Behavior such as this magnifies unsafe feelings and lack of trust in police, especially when that individual is responsible for the safety of all members of the University, regardless of color, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religion. At a time when officers should be heightened in their attentiveness to perception by our community, this act seems extremely out of touch with those sentiments and reflects poorly on all of us.
If you’ve heard about the reported terms of Kaepernick’s new book deal, you know that he doesn’t need to “stand for food” just because he remains a free agent. Halloween costumes mocking Kaepernick will likely be extremely popular this year, but you can understand why it’s a bad look coming from a police officer.
