<$BlogRSDUrl$>

My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2004-12-08

This Seems About Right

PONTIAC, Mich. -- Five Indiana Pacers and seven fans were charged Wednesday in the melee that broke out at the end of a nationally televised game against the Detroit Pistons last month, one of the worst brawls in U.S. sports history.

All the charges filed were for misdemeanor offenses, with the exception of the one idio. . . fan who threw a chair--he got charged with a felony count.

This is the sort of response that society should take in a case such as this. It was wrong for the fans to start throwing stuff on the court, but it was stupid and dangerous for the players to wade into the crowd to exact "respect." And, for the one with the chair, I hope he spends a lot of time in a small cell with a large fan of NBA basketball.

My one worry is that everybody involved will manage to plead it out in some meaningless way. In particular, for the players a $5,000 fine and some community service is nothing, but to Joe Sixpack that could be a major portion of their salary and free time. In other words, I hope the judges involved keep in mind the relative impact of whatever sentence on the people involved, and makes it appropriately painful for the players.
Posted by: Michael / 12/08/2004 11:22:00 PM

Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?