Tasering that kid at the Phillies game was wrong
Or as I like to say “I did not order a taser with my Philly Cheese Steak.”
My wife and I agree on a great deal of things in this world. We usually agree that if you do something stupid, you deserve to suffer the consequences. But last night, Mrs. Goofy and I had to disagree.
The discord in our little utopia came about over the kid that ran onto the field at the Phillies game. That kid did not deserve to be tasered.
Look, he was wrong. No doubt about it. He deserved to be caught, cuffed and fined. I don’t know what the fine is but it should be a few hundred dollar to discourage people from doing it. Put it on his permanent record and maybe even hold him overnight in a cell (away from any other population, doesn’t the Eagles stadium even have it’s own holding cells?) to drive the point home. I’m pretty sure the financial hit and the sobering reality of being confined to a cell would have been adequate to drive the point home.
But for goodness sake, don’t taser him because you have inadequate security or security provided by an out-of-shape officer that can’t corral him. Tasers can kill for goodness sakes.
I say this not because I’m a person that thinks people aren’t responsible or shouldn’t be held accountable for their own actions, but because I’m a father.
If you read the link from the story above, the kid actually called his dad to ask him what he thought. The dad said he wouldn’t do it and the kid responded with, “it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Just take a moment to think about that. Especially if you’re a parent.
A once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I’ve had what I think is a fairly unremarkable life by all accounts. Still, everybody has their moments. I’ve spoken in front of thousands of people. I’ve played on teams in arenas or stadiums filled with people. I’ve even had a couple thousand people chant my name. My individual name. I can tell you that these are all exhilarating experiences that I wish everyone could experience at least once in their life.
We’ve been to a bunch of games like everybody else and I can tell you that field calls to me. Take it from a guy with a horrible lawn, that perfectly manicured grass is just asking for you to go and roll around in it.
A friend of mine was telling me about her kid’s little league this year. The big selling point for the kids: they get to play a game at the local minor league stadium. They’re all buzzing about it. Who wouldn’t love that.
People will talk about Monica Seles, security, the safety of the officers, etc. All valid points.
But have you been to a game recently? The mouths on people as I’m trying to watch a game with my pre-teen and just-teen sons are not the types of mouths I’d prefer to have to listen to as I’m watching a game with my young children. Have I used that language before? Certainly. I’m not perfect and I tell my children that they can only control themselves and not the actions of others around them. I tell them how small those types of words can make you look. But it still bothers me to hear. Quite honestly it’s one of the reasons we don’t go to very many games anymore.
And the cursing is the smallest part of it. The stories of spilling, spitting, fighting, etc. are all pretty common. Again, the Eagles have their own holding cells. If those types of problems are so prevalent you need to install your own holding cells, well nuff said.
Quite honestly, I think running on the field is one of the great missed opportunities by Big League teams. They charge the shit out of us for everything else, parking, beer, food, etc. Why not charge people if they want to go on the field. During the seventh inning stretch, have sprint contests across for the field for an extra premium. I would pay good money if my sons and I could sprint across the field. What’s wrong with that?
Security. Pull the teams off the field if you’re worried about that. Send them to the dugouts for a few minutes. There already having kids or hot dog races in between innings. How would this be any different?
Don’t even talk to me about how it would slow up the game. How many stinking commercials do I have to sit through. They’ve made basketball almost unwatchable on TV. I think that’s an idea that could work. It might actually take me back to Camden Yards if I could sprint across the field with my two sons.
Look, the kid was wrong…but a taser. I’d like to think that when they invented the taser for police use, they were thinking about the criminal, high out of his or her ever-loving mind that they were unable to subdue. I’m hoping they weren’t considering a 17 year-old kid looking for a once in a lifetime experience.
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