A police officer at the University of Nevada, Reno, came under fire this week for a costume some described as racist.
The officer dressed as Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback ― and UNR grad ― who helped to ignite the NFL’s “take a knee” protests during the national anthem.
Adam Garcia, assistant vice president and director of police services at the school, offered “sincere apologies” for the officer’s costume.
“Members of our profession are held to a higher standard and denigrating another ― on- or off-duty ― is insensitive for its lack of respect and lack of understanding on how others may negatively view their actions and may be impacted,” Garcia said in a statement.
“At a time when officers should be heightened in their attentiveness to perception by our community, this act seems extremely out of touch with those sentiments and reflects poorly on all of us,” Garcia continued.
Despite the apology, the officer will not face discipline.
“As insensitive and inappropriate as this is, we have no policy that would dictate disciplinary action,” university spokeswoman Kerri Garcia told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem last year to protest racism, a move that led to President Donald Trump calling him and other demonstrators a “son of a bitch.”
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