title:  Vegas Cops Take Cheap Shot At Michael Bennett, Say ‘Hiding’ During Shooting Is Probable Cause
text: Now that Seahawks star defensive end Michael Bennett s harrowing story of police brutality has gone viral, the cops who arrested him are trying to cover their own asses in a PR-fueled letter to the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell. In the letter, Detective Steve Grammas, the president of the Las Vegas Metro Police Protective Association, asks Goodell to open an investigation into Bennett s allegations, and requests that the commissioner  take appropriate action. The irony is rich in seeing a letter asserting that the LVPD isn t racist, even as the first paragraph of it calls out the NFL for  condoning  Bennett s protest during the national anthem, a stance that only racists take.Bennett s protest, along with that of many players around the league, is specifically against police brutality when dealing with unarmed, innocent black  suspects.  To continue to insist that it is somehow disrespecting to  everything the flag symbolizes  is to ignore that the flag symbolizes justice as well.But the truly disgusting part of Grammas  letter is the reason he and the Las Vegas Police attempt to use as justification for having unlawfully detained Bennett in the first place. Grammas actually asserts that hiding behind a slot machine, then running outside during an episode in which shots are being fired is considered probable cause to arrest Bennett for  suspicious behavior. Guess what, geniuses? If Mike Bennett was running from the cops, you all just proved him right to have done so. He clearly has no gun, obviously isn t the only person in the entire casino hiding from the gunfire, and wasn t even remotely the only person running out the doors   Bennett himself said that  hundreds  of people were staging an exodus from the scene.One would think that maybe the guy with the Super Bowl ring on who kind of looks like Michael Bennett and can leap over a four-foot barrier might not be their suspect.It is my most sincere hope that Bennett and his lawyers not only sue the department, but Detective Grammas personally, for being the kind of dumbass who would send a self-contradictory letter like this in a case where he s clearly just trying to fire back at Bennett s allegations.Featured image via Mat Hayward/Getty Images