A doll in the image of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was seen hanging by its neck from a truck in San Jose, California, as Texas executed a racist who a dragged a black man to his death by a similar method in 1998.
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The effigy of Kaepernick was spotted chained to the truck trailer on Tuesday, a day before white supremacist John William King was executed. King, along with two others, killed 49-year-old James Byrd Jr by beating and then tying him to a truck and dragging him for three miles over two decades ago.
The investigation into the brutal murder discovered that King and his two accomplices had offered Byrd a ride before violently beating him up, wrapping a metal chain around his ankles and tying him to the back of their pickup truck before driving for miles.
On Wednesday, King became the second individual executed for his role in the murder which shattered the community, made world news, and raised questions about discrimination and inequality, prompting US Congress to pass federal hate crime legislation.
Joanna Acevedo, a woman who spotted the doll at a Safeway gas station on Cottle Road, shared the image on Twitter, bringing attention to racism issues in the country.
“Car with a lynched Colin Kaepernick Doll in San Jose, CA. And they swear Bay Area is free of hate,” she wrote.
Former San Francisco 49ers Kaepernick is well known as the instigator of the kneeling protests he begun in 2016 after he took a knee during anthem ceremonies in protest at what he perceived to be police brutality and racial injustice. San Jose is home to the Levi’s Stadium, where the 49ers play.