The Union County sheriff’s office in Arkansas has come under fire for forcing inmates to wear Nike T-shirts for mug shots. The reasoning?
The motive comes on the back of the sporting giant using former NFL QB turned activist Colin Kaepernick as a face of their ‘Just Do It.’ campaign.
Presumably, in order to paint the company in a negative light, the office would force inmates to wear the Nike products in attempt to paint the Nike’s costumer demographic as criminals.
Writer and civil rights activist Shaun King shared an image of various mug shots of inmates wearing the shirts on Twitter.
The Sheriff in Union County, Arkansas is putting Nike t-shirts on people they arrest and making them wear them during mugshots.
Source
says it is to mock Nike and Colin Kaepernick. Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/9z9Nw9hxuF— Shaun King (@shaunking) October 11, 2018
The Sheriff’s office quickly removed all images of inmates wearing the Nike apparel shorting after the tweet went viral.
Sheriff Ricky Roberts from the office says the shirt were not done in protest, but were given to criminals who came into their jail without “proper attire during the booking process.” Roberts says the shirts weren’t purchased by his department — but rather, already on-hand.