Local artist Rico Lavelle was given the distinct honor and privilege of singing the national anthem on the Ford Field at the start of the Lions football game on Sunday. Singing the national anthem has always been about honoring our flag and the brave women and men it represents who have given their lives for our nation. The seriousness of what happened near the end of Lavelle s performance cannot be understated. Rico Lavelle used his privilege to honor our flag and our military to instead, take a stand against our current President, to support a divisive, Black Lives Matter, anti-cop movement, and to salute the violent Black Panthers on a national stage.The video in and of itself is very disturbing as it shows a total and utter lack of respect for the honor bestowed upon Lavelle, but if you watch closely, you ll see 3 or 4 young black boys who also had the privilege of taking part of the national anthem on the field. Sadly, the young boys appear to be confused about what the local artist Rico Lavelle, aka Midwest Rico, is doing when he kneels and raises his fist. Perpetuating the lie that America is more racially divided now than ever before, or that all police officers are bad people is (hopefully) not why the Lions asked Lavelle to honor our flag with his rendition of the  Star Spangled Banner .Watch:Rico Lavelle sang the anthem AND took a knee pic.twitter.com/mgno4HCzZQ  Jasmine (@JasmineLWatkins) September 24, 2017Lavelle s performance didn t end on the field, he immediately took to Twitter to criticize President Trump for being  Un-American .How can the "leader" of the free world be so UN-American?  rico lavelle   (@midwestrico) September 24, 2017Later on Twitter, Lavelle retweeted a message of encouragement from the Boston Globe Deputy Washington Bureau Chief and CNN contributor, Matt Visor:Here is the tweet of encouragement from the  NOT very objective Washington bureau chief of the Boston Globe and #VeryFakeNewsCNN political analyst Matt Viser:While hitting the last note of the national anthem in Detroit, singer Rico LaVelle took a knee as young black boys looked on pic.twitter.com/lVkQvKV7Sk  Matt Viser (@mviser) September 24, 2017To which Lavelle responded by calling himself an  example :Be the example https://t.co/UavKROgfl6  rico lavelle   (@midwestrico) September 24, 2017As a side note, FBI released data yesterday showing Detroit as the winner (again) as the nation s most violent big city.At 84.3%, Detroit has the highest percentage of black residents.Perhaps the players and owners of NFL teams would be better served to try and find ways to save black youths from killing each other, rather than manufacturing racial issues or putting targets on the backs of our brave law enforcement officers. The stunning chart below from the Brookings Institute provides a pretty strong argument that racism and law enforcement is not what s harming the black community: