The Oakland Raiders should have been the ones signaling surrender.

But instead, five players from the St. Louis Rams gave the “hands up, don’t shoot” tribute to Michael Brown before doing their part in delivering the second-biggest blowout in Raiders history.

Stedman Bailey, Jared Cook, Chris Givens, Tavon Austin and Kenny Britt took the field on Sunday and raised their arms as a nod to the protesters in nearby Ferguson, where a grand jury decision to not indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of the 18-year-old led to riots.

“We wanted to show that we are organized for a great cause and something positive comes out of it,” Britt told ESPN. “That’s what we hope we can make happen. That’s our community. We wanted to let the community know that we support the community.”

Britt, for what it’s worth, has had his share of run-ins with the law.

At any rate, here’s a Vine of what the Rams protest looked like.

The gesture popped up again in the first quarter, after one of many, many ... many Rams touchdowns. Coach Fisher and the team reportedly denied being aware of the plan hatched by the players.

The whole thing didn’t go over too well with the St. Louis Police Officers Association, which released a strongly-worded statement condemning the players.

“I’d remind the NFL and their players that it is not the violent thugs burning down buildings that buy their advertiser’s products,” said SLPOA business manager Jeff Roorda. “It’s cops and the good people of St. Louis and other NFL towns that do. Somebody needs to throw a flag on this play. If it’s not the NFL and the Rams, then it’ll be cops and their supporters.”

Just to get a better idea of who is speaking out here: Roorda is a former policeman who was canned for repeatedly lying and falsifying reports, according to Deadspin. He now pushes his anti-transparency campaign in Missouri’s legislature. Read more on Roorda.