Eagles

Malcolm Jenkins Responds to John McNesby

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Nov 21st, 2019 · 11:13 AM EST

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It seems rather obvious that Malcolm Jenkins is too woke for John McNesby but not woke enough for Eric Reid. That means you’re probably doing things correctly when it comes to community service and pushing for reasonable and realistic social and political change.

In case you missed it, McNesby, the local Police Union boss, ripped an op-ed Jenkins wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer, calling the Eagles’ safety a “washed up” player who can’t tackle. The column was an outline of six things that Jenkins was hoping for in a new police commissioner, which included transparency in the search process, leading to somebody who “fights back against the police union.”

Jenkins was asked about McNesby’s response down at NovaCare, and offered up this, via Mike Kaye over at NJ.com:

“I think it proves what we’ve been talking about as far as just the ability to have a conversation about police and what we want to do differently,” Jenkins said Wednesday, regarding McNesby’s letter. “Everything that I try to do is [based] around facts and I work very, very closely with police. I don’t like to talk without experience.”

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Jenkins said he spent time with police on a ride-along and witnessed the aftermath of a shooting. He said he saw the disconnect between police and citizens firsthand. That experience backed up his claims in his op-ed.

“Nobody is talking to each other,” Jenkins said. “That trust is not there, and so when we talk about solving violent crimes and getting rid of these shootings and things like that, there needs to be cooperation and that cooperation comes with trust.”

Pretty tempered response from Jenkins, and he’s right; there’s not much of an opportunity for a conversation when the FOP boss is calling you “washed up,” a “has been,” and a “non-resident” who can’t tackle and writes “racist” newspaper attacks. Of course it’s McNesby’s job to defend Philadelphia police officers, but he doesn’t really help himself when he defaults to ad hominem attacks.