Cleveland Browns player Isaiah Crowell caused outrage among the city’s police by posting a drawing of an ISIS- or Ninja-like character using a knife to slash the throat of a police officer. Now Crowell is apologizing and pledging to donate his first game check to a local police organization.
The Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association expressed outrage after Crowell posted the drawing of the ISIS-styled murder of a police officer on his Instagram account. The player quickly deleted the image and issued a statement apologizing for posting it.
“Last week was an emotional and difficult week as we saw extreme acts of violence against black men across our country as well as against police officers in Dallas,” Crowell said in apology. “I posted an image to Instagram in the midst of that emotion that I shouldn’t have and immediately removed it. It was an extremely poor decision and I apologize for that mistake and for offending people.”
Initially the officers didn’t seem inclined to accept Crowell’s apology for posting the hateful image. But Crowell went further by pledging his first game check for the 2016 season to the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation. That latest move appears to have placated the officers who have now accepted Crowell’s apology.
“I appreciate the apology and we accept it,” Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association president Stephen Loomis told gossip site TMZ. “People are allowed to make mistakes in life. Our problem was that first apology. It wasn’t sincere. But Isaiah stepped up to the plate to make a personal apology, and we definitely appreciate his donation to the Fallen Officers Foundation.”
“I’d love to work with Isaiah in the future,” Loomis added. “How cool would it be if Isaiah and I attended community events together to really make a difference in the city? We are missing opportunities that we should be seizing as law enforcement and athletes in the city.”
Officers had said they may boycott security jobs at Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium, but the player’s latest move seems to have headed off that effort.
“I’m glad we didn’t have to go the route of boycotting Browns games. We would not have enjoyed that. We wanted to give Isaiah the opportunity to make things right, and he did,” Loomis said.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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