Arrest These Men

Here is the video of Indiana Pacer employees (basketball players) assaulting their clients (fans). I hope someone at the Detroit Police Department sees this and arrests these men, they should go to jail.

I am not an attorney, but this looks like a crime to me and I would like to see the law enforced. The commentary over this incident has focused on a discussion of sports violence and out of control fans. I think that misses the point. This group of thugs had already started a fight over a routine play that cleared the benches. They were yelling at each other, threatening each other, and fighting before any fan did anything. Then they went into the stands and assaulted some fans.

If you want to look at this as something more than a simple assault, here is how I would look at it. We treat athletes (and rappers) differently than we do other people, we treat them as celebrities and let them off when they do things others would be punished for. If the guy at the concessions stand punched someone in the face because they didn't like what they said, they would be fired and go to jail. If that guy punched his co-worker because he didn't like how he was doing his job and then punched a customer when he objected to watching them fight instead of getting him a hot dog, I don't know what would happen, but he wouldn't get suspended from his job for a while.

Ron Artest and all of his team mates should be in jail right now, waiting for an arraignment on Monday morning.

Timothy Burger