Colin Kaepernick Speaks out on George Floyd’s Death, Says ‘We Have a Right to Fight Back’

Colin Kaepernick had some strong words about the death of George Floyd and the riots that have been happening in Minnesota. On Thursday, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback went to Twitter to share his thoughts on the situation. He explained the reason people are rioting has to do with the continued deaths of unarmed black males by police officers.

“When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction,” Kaepernick wrote. “The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance. We have the right to fight back! Rest in Power George Floyd. Kaepernick’s tweet led to some mixed reactions on Twitter. The interesting thing is once the news broke about Floyd’s death, there were many people to reference Kaepernick in their reaction. LeBron James posted on Instagram a photo of Kaepernick kneeling and a photo of the officer who had his knee on Floyd’s neck. There were other social media users to share the same photo as Kaepernick kneeled during the national them all throughout the 2016 season to protest the racial and social injustice in the country.

Floyd, 46, died on Monday night while being detained by police, one bystander posted a video of an officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck while handcuffed, even after he pleaded he couldn’t breathe. It led to a major uproar across the country, and there have been other athletes to express their anger about the situation.”I’ve seen the video, and I think it’s disgusting,” Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt said in a news conference Wednesday. “I think that there’s no explanation. I mean, to me, it doesn’t make any sense. I just don’t see how a man in handcuffs on the ground, who is clearly detained and clearly saying, in distress … I don’t understand how that situation can’t be remedied in a way that doesn’t end in his death.”

Former NBA star Stephen Jackson was a good friend of Floyd and got very emotional talking about him on the Today show. “I knew that was a cry for help,” he said on Today. “We don’t scream my mother’s name like that unless we know something is wrong, and our life is in jeopardy.”