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Law and Disorder on the playing field....
I just saw a news report where the local sports director thinks everyone
"overreacted" to the fact that a professional baseball player unlimbered
his bat and swung at a young woman dressed in a food costume during a
mascot race.
He says they overreacted because he didn't hit her that hard and she only
got skinned knees. Apparently he missed--or chose to overlook--a few
facts. She wouldn't have skinned knees if the idiot hadn't hit her on the
head with a baseball bat. the fact that the costume absorbed the blow
belies the fact that these guys are paid to be able to hit a ball
travelling 95 miles an hour hard enough to knock it out of the
stadium. It's assault and battery, by the definition of the law in most
places.
Did it look silly? Yes, it's hard not to smile a little at seeing a
sausage with arms and legs fall down. But there was a person in there, and
I doubt she was smiling. I doubt her family was smiling. the fact that
she wasn't seriously hurt is a relief, not an excuse. This is exactly the
kind of behavior that leads to the more serious things that happen to
people like Darrell Armstrong and the Portland Trailblazers. They get away
with little things an then expect to be treated like they have diplomatic
immunity.
I'm sure the officers who arrested the ballplayer will take some heat and
some bad jokes. Not from me. The cops did exactly what they should have
done. Someone hit someone else with a baseball bat and that person was
arrested.
Unfortunately, the effort has already been undermined by the District
Attorney's office, which has declined to press criminal charges. Look at
what happened a while back when two dads got into a fight at their kid's
hockey game. One died, the other went to prison for murder. This time,
thank goodness, they were lucky.
What happens NEXT time???
Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
Please visit the <http://www.celticsbeagle.net/>Celtics Beagle Website