Re: [Celtics' Stuff ] Law and Disorder on the playing field....

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:51 AM 7/11/03 -0400, Shawn Niles wrote:
>You are WAY off base here Snoopy. He certainly had no intent to hurt the
>girl. Who knows if he even knew it was a girl in there? Regardless, it was a
>funny stunt they were doing and he tried to make a joke. He didn't even hit
>her that hard. The only reason she fell is because the costume was so dang
>heavy that her center of gravity was way off. Assault and battery??  Gimme a
>break.

I never said he intended to hurt her.  But there's no way you can say it 
was an "accident" either.  He deliberately struck her with the bat.  What 
he intended isn't an issue.  It's what he DID.  Maybe it was a joke.  I'm 
willing to give him the benefit of the doubt there.  Still doesn't change 
that it was incredibly poor judgement on his part.  And in fairness, the 
young woman did accept his apology--and, I'm told, an autographed bat.  :>)

>He didn't do anything that most of us probably haven't done at one time or
>another while joking around. I was swimming with some buddies of mine the
>other day and I *gasp* pushed one into the pool!! Can you imagine such a
>thing?? Maybe my friend should have called the cops and had me arrested for
>assault. After all, he could have hit his knee on the side of the pool and
>scraped it!! Can you imagine the insanity?!?!?

Ummm...yes.  That sort of thing HAS HAPPENED.  (incidentally, he could also 
have hit his head and been seriously hurt--that's been known to happen, 
too) But there's a difference.  You and your buddies are horsing around and 
so someone probably expects to end up in the pool sooner or later.  She was 
running a race wearing a costume with limited peripheral vision, and got 
clonked on the head by a guy she doesn't even know as she passes by 
him.  Frankly, I'm thrilled it wasn't more serious.  I just think it's not 
unreasonable to ask an adult to think before swinging his bat.

I know that we're approaching this from different points of 
view.  Hopefully, we'll have more fun things to talk about with the NBA 
action heating up once more.

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
Please visit the <http://www.celticsbeagle.net/>Celtics Beagle Website