Col. Kriste Kibbey Etue
Despite calls for her resignation or firing, Gov. Rick Snyder indicated Wednesday that he won't give Michigan State Police Director Col. Kriste Kibbey Etue the ax for sharing a social media post calling NFL football players "degenerates" for kneeling in protest during the national anthem.
Snyder's spokeswoman Anna Heaton said in an email that Etue was an “outstanding public servant” who made a mistake and apologized, reports Jonathan Oosting of The Detroit News.
Etue posted a meme on her Facebook page that refers to sports figures protesting the anthem as “millionaire ingrates who hate America and disrespect our armed forces and veterans.”
Members of the Michigan Black Legislative Caucus won't be very happy with that response. They question her objectivity and understanding of what they called symbolic protests against racial oppression and police brutality, The News reports.
“It’s a divisive time in this country, and we all have our personal beliefs,” state Sen. Ian Conyers, D-Detroit, tells the Freep. “However, members of law enforcement and the military are held to a particularly higher standard. In these sensitive times, I think we’re starting to believe that culture starts at the top."
At the Detroit Free Press, columnist Nancy Kaffer writes:
For the leader of that state police organization to call those protesting police brutality, most of whom are African Americans, "degenerates" is breathtaking. . . .
For a white woman to imply that black men or anyone who holds a political position she doesn't agree with "hate America" says clearly that to Etue, America is us, not them. For any public servant to thus imply whom she feels merits citizenship, and the respect and the rights that status confers, is a dereliction of duty.
Lady, you're the problem. . . . Thank you for telling us who you are.
