San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is a "disgrace" for not standing during the national anthem and wearing socks depicting cops as pigs — especially since "the issue he's raising is a totally phony one," Rep. Peter King told Newsmax on Friday.
"Police are not shooting innocent blacks in the streets," King, 72, a Republican who has represented New York since 1993, said in an interview.
"If we're talking about African Americans being killed or murdered, the overwhelming majority of African Americans are killed in their own communities by other African Americans," he added. "That's the issue that's here."
Kaepernick, 28, who was drafted by San Francisco in 2011, touched off a firestorm last Friday by refusing to stand for "The Star-Spangled Banner" in an NFL exhibition game against the Green Bay Packers.
He kneeled Thursday before the pre-season game against the San Diego Chargers — and social media posts this week showed Kaepernick wearing the socks during practice.
The quarterback said after the game that he would donate the first $1 million he made this season to organizations assisting communities affected by racial injustice and police brutality.
Kaepernick has "never contributed anything to a constructive debate," King told Newsmax.
"If he were serious about this, what he would do is he would first of all learn something about what he's talking about — go into the African-American community, meet with leaders, meet with police leaders."
King also ripped the football player's citing his two police officer uncles in his explanation for wearing the practice socks.
"My father was a cop for many years in New York City. There's always been friction between police officers and the communities they're policing, especially when there's high crime coming out of those communities.
"Can we work on better ways to improve relations?" the congressman asked. "Yes, but at the same time, keep in mind that it's the police officers who have done more to save African-American lives than anyone over the years.
"When cops go wrong, they have to be punished for it. No doubt about it.
"But to say that there's any pattern against African Americans or that a cop gets up in the morning and wants to go out and shoot black people as opposed to white people, that's just slander.
"It does nothing to the debate," King told Newsmax. "It does nothing to attempt to bring races together and does nothing to save black lives.
"The way to save black lives is to work with the police."
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