For the third time in less than a week, a police union is ripping Colin Kaepernick for his actions. The only difference is that this time, there could be consequences for his team.
In a letter that was hand-delivered to 49ers officials on Friday, the Santa Clara Police Officer's Association told the team its officers might stop working home games as a response to Kaepernick's protesting of the national anthem.
In the letter, which was obtained by NBCBayArea.com, the police union said that Kaepernick's actions "could result in police officers choosing not to work at your facilities."
From the letter:
[Kaepernick] insinuated that police officers are being placed on paid leave for murdering minorities. This statement is obviously insulting, inaccurate and completely unsupported by any facts.
The letter also makes reference to the "pig cop" socks that Kaepernick wore in early August:
On Aug. 31, 2016, it was learned by members of the SCPOA that the 49ers organization has been allowing Mr. Kaepernick to wear exposed socks with an image of a pig wearing a police hat during practices in Santa Clara.
The letter then ended with the threat to pull officers from the stadium:
If the 49ers organization fails to take action to stop this type of inappropriate work place behavior, it could result in police officers choosing to not work at your facilities.
The reason the officers might be pulled from duty is because the union is worried about their officers being harassed:
The board of directors of the Santa Clara Police Officer's Association has a duty to protect its members and work to make all of their workings environments free of harassing behavior.
The 49ers play their home games at Levi's Stadium, which is located in Santa Clara, California. The two sides have less than 10 days to figure things out, because the 49ers are scheduled to play their home opener on Sept. 12 against the Rams.
The threat from the Santa Clara Police Officer's Association comes just five days after the San Francisco Police Officers Association blasted Kaepernick for his protest. In a letter that was sent on Monday, the SFPOA referred to Kaepernick as an "embarrassment" to the NFL.
Both organizations are upset with comments that Kaepernick made during an almost 20-minute interview on Aug. 28.
Kaepernick said that one of the big reasons he's protesting the national anthem is because he has an issue with the police brutality that's going on unchecked in this country.
"There's a lot of things that need to change," Kaepernick said, via ESPN.com. "One specifically? Police brutality. There's people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. People are being given paid leave for killing people. That's not right. That's not right by anyone's standards."
The 49ers quarterback also added that be believes cops are targeting minorities.
"There is police brutality," Kaepernick said. "People of color have been targeted by police. So that's a large part of it and they're government officials. They are put in place by the government. So that's something that this country has to change. There's things we can do to hold them more accountable. Make those standards higher."
Kaepernick also brought up the fact that hair dressers in California have to go through more training than a police officer.
"You can become a cop in six months and don't have to have the same amount of training as a cosmetologist," Kaepernick said. "That's insane. Someone that's holding a curling iron has more education and more training than people that have a gun and are going out on the street to protect us."
Kaepernick was also ripped by the National Association of Police Organizations. That group blasted him for wearing the pig cop socks that the Santa Clara police also mentioned.
If the Santa Clara police union follow through on its threat of pulling officers from games, the 49ers would have to work quickly to replace the lost manpower. According to NBC Bay Area, there are about 70 officers who work each of the team's home games.
You can read the letter in its entirety by clicking here.
