NFL player Colin Kaepernick announced his own initiative that will provide free autopsies to the families of criminals who were killed in “police-related” incidents.
As reported by Fox News, Kaepernick’s new Autopsy Initiative, part of a broader organization called the “Know Your Rights Camp,” will offer free secondary autopsies by board-certified pathologists, who will then provide preliminary findings and final reports to the families who requested them.
In a statement announcing the initiative, Kaepernick claimed that “the prison industrial complex, which includes police and policing, strives to protect and serve its interests at all costs. The Autopsy Initiative is one important step toward ensuring that family members have access to accurate and forensically verifiable information about the cause of death of their loved one in their time of need.”
The program manager for the Autopsy Initiative, Nicole Martin, said that she is “passionate about the Initiative’s impact and look(s) forward to being a resource to victims’ family members who have lost their loved ones due to a police-related death.”
One of the pathologists attached to the project, Cyril Wecht, said that he is “extremely enthusiastic about this truly unique program.”
“The opportunity to have unbiased second autopsies performed by independent, experienced forensic pathologists in police-related deaths,” Wecht stated, “will provide victims’ families with knowledge that the true facts of any such case have been thoroughly analyzed and prepared for appropriate utilization whenever deemed necessary.”
Kaepernick, who previously played for the San Francisco 49’ers, became infamous in 2016 for starting the kneeling movement, a protest meant to show disrespect for the National Anthem and the American flag by kneeling whenever the Anthem is played before a football game. Kaepernick claimed to be protesting “police brutality” and “systemic racism” against