Seahawks’ Doug Baldwin continues to act for social change. His latest cause: ending cash bail

Doug Baldwin continues to forge his way past the millions of Americans who either can’t hear his message, or don’t want to.

How? By doing.

The Seahawks’ top wide receiver has for the last two-plus years used his platform as an NFL star to lobby Congress to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for low-level crimes. He’s testified at the Washington State Capitol for police-reform legislation in the training and policies for the use of deadly force. He’s met with law-enforcement officials and community leaders from across the Pacific Northwest on deescalation methods police officers can use to help prevent needless killings in confrontations. He’s met with Washington attorney general Bob Ferguson about these and other issues, as well.

Now Baldwin has a new target: He is seeking ways to fix what he says is our country’s “antiquated” cash-bail system. Baldwin and many others believe cash bail unfairly jails citizens of lower socioeconomic status for non-violent and minor offenses, simply because they don’t have money to pay standard bail.

“Right now, we are discussing district attorneys and their roles in the criminal-justice system, and treating people fairly, and humanely,” the face and voice for the Seahawks’ protest movement the last two years said this week, while he and his Seahawks prepared for their 2018 season opener Sunday at Denver. “And so one of the things we are addressing right now is the bail system, the cash-bail system, which is an antiquated system. (It) is really exclusive to, or beneficial to, the people who can afford the cash-bail system, right?

“People who are in more impoverished situations, typically, they can’t (pay). I think we have over 100,000 people who are sitting in jail right now who are not in jail because they have been convicted of a crime but because they can’t pay their bail. And it’s not violent offenses, right. These are not violent offenses that I am talking about. These are people who cannot afford their bail, like we probably could.”

Baldwin’s father was a career law-enforcement officer. The wide receiver is a Stanford graduate and a National Honor Society inductee growing up in Florida. Baldwin has been one of the NFL’s most prominent and eloquently spoken advocates for social change while national controversy over players kneeling or sitting during the national anthem have ignored or obscured his message. He’s used his weekly press conferences over the last couple seasons to quote the U.S. Constitution, the Department of Justice and Martin Luther King Jr. along with how he and Russell Wilson are connecting with passes on the field.

This summer, Baldwin was one of four finalists for the Muhammed Ali Sports Humanitarian Award. The other finalists were Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt, Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant (who began his NBA career with the Seattle SuperSonics) and WWE star John Cena. The Ali award honors “their commitment and positive impact in their communities.”

Durant won the award this summer. The NBA star began the Kevin Durant Charity Foundation in 2012 to help at-risk youth. He donated $1 million to victims of the tornadoes in Oklahoma in 2013, when he played for Oklahoma City. He has also been an advocate to eliminate youth homelessness.

Durant plays in California, which last week became the first state in country to eliminate cash bail.

Baldwin and his NFL’s Players’ Coalition want Washington and more states to be next. Baldwin has been an active member in the Players’ Coalition of veterans trying to further the protest movement across the league into the action with entities in daily society.

“There is a lot of nuance to it, and the things that we are trying to address,” Baldwin said of cash bails. “Quite frankly, I’ve been encouraged with the work that us players as a Players’ Coalition have been able to accomplish and get done. But I have been discouraged with the amount of—I don’t even know what the word is—how screwed up the system is, from top down. How antiquated the system is, from our criminal-justice system.

“So in that regard, yeah, I am encouraged with the direction we are going, the effort and the energy that the players are putting into it.

“But also, just looking at it as a whole, I have to be realistic in saying that’s it’s a screwed-up system. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

This spring and summer, just as players seemed to be moving past the anthem controversy, the NFL pushed it back to prominence with its ill-conceived and unilateral decision to institute a new policy without the players’ input. That league took back that policy, which would have left players who chose to make statements and stances during the anthem subject to team and league discipline. Currently the NFL and its players’ union are trying to find a compromise policy.

I asked Baldwin if sees progress in what he is doing on the whole, in getting the message to rise above the nation’s noise about anthems and protests and kneeling. The noise from President Donald Trump ripping each protesting player as a “son of a b**ch.” From Vice President Mike Spence walking out of a 49ers-Colts game in Indianapolis last season before it started, after some 49ers players kneeled again during the anthem.

“Yeah, I think so. It’s been a slow process,” Baldwin said.

“I think through my process I’ve had to be more empathetic for that side, as well. Obviously, pushing a message that we are attacking the systemic problems that are in our country, that we’re not trying to disrespect the military, police officers in any way. That message has just been redundant.

“The point really comes down to we are fighting problems that exist in our humanity. To me, you know, that’s really the only cause that truly matters. There’s issues that are plaguing our society that are keeping people from reaching their full potential and not just in terms of reaching financial success or superficial success, but really just, are they safe? Are they healthy? Simple, basic needs that haven’t been met.

“As a citizen of this country, as somebody who has a father who spent 35 years as a police officer, both grandfathers who have been in the military having an extensive military background, I think that what we are trying to do in pushing our country to be accountable to itself and to the members of this country, I think it’s a very patriotic thing in that regard.

“So I think that the message is slowly being heard. I’m hoping that it’s increasingly being heard in an empathetic way, because really that’s the only way we’re going to get to solutions for all these problems.

“So yeah, I do think the messages are being heard. But I hope that it’s being heard even more in an empathetic way.”