NYC Baseball Stadium Offers 'Blue Lives Matter' Discount on Anniversary of Michael Brown's Death

Photo courtesy of Blue Lives Matter.

Sunday, August 9 marked the one-year anniversary of the day 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

And Sunday, August 9 also the day chosen by the Staten Island Yankees, a minor-league baseball team and New York Yankees affiliate, to hand out ”Blue Lives Matter” wristbands and help raise money for the families of fallen police officers.

Like many charities, the Blue Lives Matter non-profit was allowed to sell discounted $25 tickets (normally $34) for the Yankees’ game with the Brooklyn Cyclones on Aug. 9.

They even called it ”Blue Lives Matter Day” at Richmond County Bank Ballpark.

Supporters of Black Lives Matter, who have long been critical of the “Blue Lives Matter” copycat slogan, didn’t appreciate the timing.

From a story posted at The Root:

“The refrain ’Blue Lives Matter,’ just like ’All Lives Matter,’ is a pathetic silencing tactic meant to minimize the pervasiveness of police brutality and amplify the need that too many white Americans have to vilify African Americans in this country — even in the grave.

While the Staten Island Yankees are slinging peanuts and Cracker Jacks, we’re trying to stay alive and they couldn’t give a damn about it.”

Jane Rogers, president and general manager of the Staten Island Yankees, responded to the outrage in an interview with Yahoo News.

“It was treated just as we do with every group that comes in. It was pretty standard. We get these inquiries many times a week,” she said.

“It was really a coincidence that it fell on the anniversary date. There was never any intent to connect the days in any way. We just wanted to provide a space like any other group looking to fundraise at the ballpark.”

Meanwhile, a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Ferguson honoring Brown’s memory erupted in gunfire around midnight. And in NYC, a citywide solidarity march that began in Brooklyn eventually dissolved into “violent” clashes with police in the Bronx, according to witnesses.